Thankful Hearts … (November 2025 Update)
We watch a lot of old movies in our family. Since we are studying about the time just before World War I in homeschool, we watched one of my all-time favorites: Fiddler on the Roof. This movie is actually based on a series of stories called “Tevye the Milkman” by a Jewish Ukrainian author, Sholem Aleichem. We love all the songs, especially “L’Chaim” (“To Life”). One verse in the song sums up the biblical attitude that we should have toward thankfulness. Tevye sings: “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor; How much more can we be joyful, when there’s really something to be joyful for.”
As believers, we have so much to be thankful for – even when things are not going well. In his book, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, Thomas Watson says,
Praise and thanksgiving is the work of heaven and he [the godly man] begins that work here which he will always be doing in heaven. The Jews have a saying – the world subsists by three things: the law, the worship of God and thankfulness. As if where thankfulness was missing, one of the pillars of the world had been taken away and it was ready to fall.
The psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2) and “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Psalm 92:1). As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday, it is good for us to think biblically about our thankfulness. Here are some thoughts from Thomas Watson about thankfulness that may help us to have truly thankful hearts, “even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.”
How may we know whether we are rightly thankful? Thomas Watson gives us 10 answers to this question:
Answer 1: When we are careful to register God’s mercy: “David appointed certain of the Levites to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel” (1 Chron. 16:4). Physicians say that the memory is the first thing that decays. It is true in spiritual matters: “They soon forgot his works” (Psalm 106:13). A godly man enters his mercies, as a physician does his remedies, in a book, so that they may not be lost. Mercies are jewels that should be locked up. A child of God keeps two books always by him: one to write his sins in, so that he may be humble; the other to write his mercies in, so that he may be thankful.
Answer 2: We are rightly thankful when our hearts are the chief instrument in the music of praise: “I will praise the Lord with my whole heart” (Psalm 111:1). David would tune not only his violin, but also his heart. If the heart does not join with the tongue, there can be no comfort. Where the heart is not engaged, the parrot is as good a chorister as the Christian.
Answer 3: We are rightly thankful when the favors which we receive endear our love to God the more. David’s miraculous preservation from death drew forth his love to God: “I love the Lord” (Psalm 116:1). It is one thing to love our mercies; it is another thing to love the Lord. Many love their deliverance but not their deliverer. God is to be loved more than his mercies.
Answer 4: We are rightly thankful when, in giving our praise to God, we take all worthiness from ourselves: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies thou hast showed unto thy servant” (Genesis 32:10). As if Jacob had said, “Lord, the worst bit you give me is better than I deserve.” Mephibosheth bowed himself and said, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (2 Sam. 9:8). So when a thankful Christian makes a survey of his blessings and sees how much he enjoys that others better than he lack, he says, “Lord, what am I, a dead dog, that free grace should look upon me, and that thou shouldest crown me with such loving kindness?”
Answer 5: We are rightly thankful when we put God’s mercy to good use. We repay God’s blessings with service. The Lord gives us health, and we spend and are spent for Christ (2 Cor. 12:15). He gives us an estate, and we honor the Lord with our substance (Prov. 3:9). He gives us children, and we dedicate them to God and educate them for God. We do not bury our talents but trade them. This is to put our mercies to good use. A gracious heart is like a piece of good ground that, having received the seed of mercy, produces a crop of obedience.
Answer 6: We are rightly thankful when we can have our hearts more enlarged for spiritual than for temporal mercies: “Blessed be God, who bath blessed us with all spiritual blessings” (Eph. 1:3). A godly man blesses God more for a fruitful heart than a full crop. He is more thankful for Christ than for a kingdom. Socrates [said] that he loved the king’s smile more than his gold. A pious heart is more thankful for the smile of God’s face than he would be for the gold of the Indies.
Answer 7: We are rightly thankful when mercy is a spur to duty. It causes a spirit of activity for God. Mercy is not like the sun to the fire, to dull it, but like oil to the wheel, to make it run faster. David wisely argues from mercy to duty: “Thou heat delivered my soul from death. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:8,9). It was a dying of Bernard, “Lord, I have two mites, a soul and a body, and I give them both to thee.”
Answer 8: We are rightly thankful when we motivate others to this angelic work of praise. David does not only wish to bless God himself but calls upon others to do so: “Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 111:1). The sweetest music is that which is in unison. When many saints join together in unison, they make heaven ring with their praises.
Answer 9: We are rightly thankful when we not only speak God’s praise but also live his praise. It is called an expression of gratitude. We give thanks when we live thanks. Such as are mirrors of mercy should be patterns of piety. “Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness” (Obad. 17). To give God oral praise and dishonor him in our lives is to commit a barbarism in religion and is to be like those Jews who bowed the knee to Christ and then spat on him (Mark 15:19).
Answer 10: We are rightly thankful when we propagate God’s praises to posterity. We tell our children what God has done for us; in such a want, he supplied us; from such a sickness, he raised us up; in such a temptation, he helped us. “O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old” (Psalm 44:1). By transmitting our experiences to our children, God’s name is eternalized, and his mercies will bring forth a plentiful crop of praise [after] we have gone.
Watson leaves us with one final question: What shall we do to be thankful?
Answer 1: If you wish to be thankful, get a heart deeply humbled with the sense of your own vileness. A broken heart is the best pipe to sound forth God’s praise. He who studies his sins wonders that he has anything that God should shine on such a dunghill: “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, but I obtained mercy” (1 Timothy 1:13). How thankful Paul was! How he trumpeted forth free grace! A proud man will never be thankful. He looks on all his mercies as either of his own procuring or deserving. If he has an estate, this he has got by his wits and industry, not considering that scripture, “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:18). Pride stops the current of gratitude. O Christian, think of your unworthiness; see yourself the least of saints and the chief of sinners, and then you will be thankful.
Answer 2: Strive for sound evidences of God’s love to you. Read God’s love in the impress of holiness upon your hearts. God’s love poured in will make the vessels of mercy run over with thankfulness: “Unto him that loved us, be glory and dominion forever” (Rev.1:5-6). The deepest springs yield the sweetest water. Hearts deeply aware of God’s love yield the sweetest praises.
As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, remember the words of Tevye’s song: “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor; How much more can we be joyful, when there’s really something to be joyful for.” We have much to be joyful for – even if our hearts lie panting on the floor. L’chaim!
Opportunities to Serve and Teach …
Last month, I participated in a D.Min. dissertation defense for one of my first students in Ukraine. Alexander (Sasha) Savich was my student back in 1996 and he has served as an Academic Dean at Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary for about 15 years. He has developed a pastor training program for churches that focuses on shared leadership and mentoring. This approach is very new in Ukraine. I praise the Lord for how God is using Dr. Savich to train and equip men for ministry in Ukraine!
Ukrainian students in both L’viv and Kyiv continue to take classes and prepare for ministry even during regular air raids from Russian missiles. Here students at Kyiv Theological Seminary study in classroom “bunkers” underground so that they do not have to be continually interrupted by running to bomb shelters. Pray for both these seminaries and their students as they continue to train for ministry and share the gospel under very difficult situations!
Also, this month, Katya and I participated in NWA for the Nations here in Fayetteville. This conference featured many excellent speakers sharing about missions for young people here in Northwest Arkansas. We heard many great messages (especially one about the importance of being “senders” that I will try to share with you in the coming months) and we were able to speak with a number of people about missions. We also had great time sharing about Ukraine during the “lunch with a missionary” session on Saturday.
I thought I had finished teaching for this year (except for grading papers from my October class), but one of my students from Odessa contacted me and asked me to teach a Theology 1 class the week of Thanksgiving. I am really limited on time, but I want to help as much as I can. So, I agreed to teach the class. I have a lot to do in preparation, so be praying for me as I prepare and teach this class in Odessa.
I still haven’t had much time to work on developing the theological education courses for GlobalServe missionaries. I need to really work on this over the next few months. I have been asked to share about this at the Sender’s Forum in February so I need to find time to work on this over the holidays. Please pray for me. I’m really a teacher and not a developer and organizer so this takes much more mental energy than teaching classes 😊!
Family …
With the first frost and first freeze this month, we have begun clean up and preparation for our garden. We have had a pretty good harvest even though we are still learning. Because our income is so low, we have to work hard at growing our own food. One thing we have learned is that Arkansas is NOT Ukraine! In Ukraine, we rarely had any problems with bugs. Not so in Arkansas! We lost a lot of our harvest this summer because we did not spray. Once we started to deal with the bugs in August, our harvest picked up dramatically. We will definitely be spraying bugs next spring and we think we will have a much better harvest! Fall has meant some cooler temperature, beautiful sunsets, and even some time around the fire pit! Fall is definitely my favorite time of year!
While fall is my favorite time of year, Halloween has become our girls’ favorite holiday. We didn’t have Halloween in Ukraine so dressing up and getting free candy has been something really special for them. This year, Kristina went as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie and Nadia dressed up as Padme from Star Wars. Over the last three years, they have enjoyed going trick-or-treating with Haven and Harlie and now including Sullivan and Cass too. Afterwards, Haven and Harlie came to our house for a special sleepover too.
Finally, this month had lots of small but special events. First, Katya and I celebrated our 15 Year Anniversary! We didn’t have much time to do anything much, but we enjoyed an evening of dance and dinner together. What a special (and surprising) 15 years it has been! Also, the girls (along with Haven and Harlie) participated in a Kids Entrepreneur Marketplace. Everything had to be done by the kids (baking, making, selling, etc), and, while they didn’t make much money, they had a good time and learned a little about business. Finally, Kristina and Nadia participated in another swim meet at Goldfish Swim School. They both did extremely well, winning or placing second in all their races. We were most pleased at how smooth their swimming strokes have become over the years!
We still have a lot of small things to do on the house, but we are pretty settled. Hopefully we can get some of the work done during the winter. But we are really blessed to have a house that is really energy efficient and very practical for our needs. And we love living out in the country and enjoying the peace and quiet all around us.
Pray for Ukraine …
Please pray for Ukraine but also for Russia too. Ukraine has finally been permitted to start attacking Russian oil refineries and depots and it is really beginning to affect the Russian people. For the first time in nearly 4 years of war, the Russian people are feeling a little bit of what Ukrainians experience every day. And many are beginning to protest openly about the war. Pray that their voices will be heard and that they will convince their government that this war needs to end.
As always, most importantly, pray for our friends and students who continue to faithfully share the gospel in very dark and difficult times. Our friends are worn out by 4 years of nightly missiles and bombings, but, amazingly, they continue to have a heart of joy, even though their “hearts lie panting on the floor!” As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, give thanks for all that God has given you, but also remember to pray for those who are struggling and suffering around the world!
By His Grace,
Jim and Katya, Kristina and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
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