Not Slaying Our Appetite for Gratefulness

“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:10-11, AMP)

November is all about giving thanks. We love to do our 30 days of thankful posts on Facebook. We remember thankfulness at church services leading up to the holidays; we go around the table while we’re all digging in to the Thanksgiving meal, saying what we’re most thankful for this year.

And the day after?

It’s great to have a day dedicated to being thankful and remembering all the ways God has blessed us, even better to recognize it all year round, but it’s easy to slip back into habits of discontent.

You get jealous of the girl who’s getting married next year, wishing it was your turn to plan a wedding and be in love. You scroll through your social media and envy an old high school acquaintance who is Instagram-model skinny and wears super cute clothes. You grumble about a family friend who is going on yet another beautiful vacation abroad, sight-seeing, eating great food, and living a crazy, interesting life. Someone, somewhere has the career they love and are killing it in, the beautiful family you dream of for yourself, or the cozy home you wish you had enough for a down payment on.

There are so many reasons to be ungrateful. So, we have one day to commemorate the things we should cherish, and 364 other days to waste pining after someone else’s love, success, accomplishments, and beauty. It robs us. It steals away the peace we could have for what God has given us already. 

Elisabeth Elliot talks about this idea in her book Let Me Be a Woman. She remembers the time when she was engaged to her first husband, who was a missionary in South America. During their engagement, he went ahead and started to establish a home amongst the tribe he was ministering to, learn the language, and serving the community there. Elisabeth writes that she was envious; she wanted to be there with him, serving alongside him, but couldn’t until they were married.

In the letters they exchanged, she says her husband wrote, “Let not our longing slay the appetite of living.” She goes on to write, “Those words had helped me very often since. We accept and thank God for what is given, not allowing the not-given to spoil it.”

Everyone looks ahead. Everyone dreams and aspires and desires more for themselves from tomorrow. That’s a natural part of life. But sometimes, our aspirations and dreams for tomorrow have a way of eclipsing the things we should enjoy now. There was a time that I fervently prayed for my husband to come along and for it to be the season of falling in love with him. After we were married, we went through a season of infertility in trying to conceive our firstborn. I think it’s possible that at times, we yearned so badly for a child that we forgot to be grateful and enjoy the moments in time where it was just us two.

Indeed, those were days we prayed and pined for once upon a time! And in God’s time, He allowed us to have children, but what use was it getting all wound up over conceiving a child when the season was being newly-weds? 

God gives us what we need for today. What He hasn’t given yet simply isn’t needed yet. Scripture says His mercies to us are new every morning. He gives us strength to face the day. He gave the Israelites daily bread, just the way He gives us exactly what we need for today’s challenges.

Like Elisabeth Elliot says, we shouldn’t allow the not-given to spoil what God has given. We shouldn’t yearn so deeply for the things God has for tomorrow that we miss out on the things we should be thankful for and accepting of today.

Let’s learn to sit in this very moment in time. Let’s praise Him for what He gave us for today, knowing that not so long ago, today’s portion was something we prayed and hoped for. God provides the seed for the sower, but He also will provide the harvest and the food for the sower’s table, plus next year’s seed. God provides what we need for today, and already knows what He is going to give tomorrow, next week, next year.

We may feel we lack today, but that’s only because God is building something. If we could do it ourselves, we wouldn’t have a testimony to God’s goodness and mercy. God knows our wants for tomorrow. And when it’s His will for us to walk in something and experience it fully, He will give it. In His time, His planning, and in His goodness.

Let’s be grateful for today, and for the little allotment He’s sovereignly given for today. Let’s thank Him that He is in control, and that we can rest in His provision, His faithfulness, and His love. Let’s praise the Lord that knows we only need so much for today, that we can only handle so much for right now. He is holy. He knows what He’s doing, and He is perfect in His timing.

Don’t let your longing for your dreams slay your appetite for what the Lord gave for today. Tomorrow will come, and tomorrow, there is a whole new suite of mercies, and strength, and seed, and daily bread. Let God handle tomorrow. Let’s be grateful for today.