Classic Christianity – Give Thanks – 11-04-26
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 — “Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Bob George teaches that giving thanks “in all things” means gratitude isn’t dependent on circumstances going well. Life includes both joy and sorrow, and he says a thankful heart begins with seeing life realistically rather than expecting constant happiness.
Bob describes people as having bodily, soulish, and spiritual needs. Physical needs include food and water; soulish needs involve the mind, emotions, and will. He identifies the spiritual needs for unconditional love, acceptance, and meaning as needs that, in his view, can ultimately be met only through God.
Bob cautions against looking to a spouse, family, career, or other people to satisfy those deepest needs. Expecting others to provide perfect love, acceptance, or purpose can create frustration and strain relationships. He presents reliance on Jesus, rather than on people or temporary comforts, as the answer to this misplaced dependency.
Bob also teaches that thoughts shape emotions: dwelling on past mistakes can bring guilt and regret, while imagining future troubles can fuel anxiety. He encourages renewing the mind through biblical truth and turning attention toward what is true and good.
Finally, Bob says unrealistic expectations can intensify disappointment when people experience rejection, insults, or hardship. He encourages choosing gratitude over resentment and trusting God to work through difficult circumstances for good.
Here are the Scripture passages Bob quoted, referenced, or clearly alluded to.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 — Give thanks in all circumstances.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 — Body, soul, and spirit.
Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1–5 — Adam’s death at the Fall and spiritual death.
Romans 12:2 — Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
John 8:32 — The truth will set you free.
Philippians 4:8 — Think about what is true, pure, and good.
Matthew 6:25–34, especially verse 34 — Do not be anxious about tomorrow.
Philippians 4:6–7 — Bring anxieties to God; his peace surpasses understanding.
1 Peter 5:7 — Cast your anxieties on God.
Matthew 11:28–30 — Come to Jesus for rest.
John 16:33 — In the world, you will have trouble.
Romans 8:28 — God works all things for good for those called according to his purpose.
Romans 5:8; Romans 8:38–39 — Related passages on God’s love; these were not quoted directly in the transcript.
—
Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
Bible Study Booklets
Announcer 0:13
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
Bob George 0:28
The Book of Thessalonians is a very, very famous passage that most of us have already learned. In all things, give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you in Christ Jesus, he did not say in some things give thanks because it feels good. He said in all things give thanks. Now, when you see the word all, guess what it means? It means all. Now, would that include the hard times that you and I have? Would it include the good times that you and I have? In fact, what it includes is all times. Because, folks, if we’re going to be thankful people, we’re not going to be able to rely upon being thankful because everything is going our way, our way. Because in this world in which we live, you’re going to have some good times and you’re going to have some bad times. You’re going to have some happy times and you’re going to have sad times. You’re going to rejoice in the birth of a baby and you’re going to mourn in the death of a loved one. That’s life, and to look at life unrealistically is the beginning of all depression, and a thankful heart will never be a depressed heart. So what God wants us to do is to learn how to have a thankful heart.
Now, guys, we are made up of body, soul, and spirit. The Scripture teaches that we don’t have to wonder if that’s true, and all three of those elements have needs. You have bodily needs, do you not? And if those needs are not met, you’ll die. You have a need to intake food. If you don’t eat, you’re going to die. You have a need for water. If you do not have water, you will die. There are physical needs. We all know that if those needs are not met, we will die. You also have soulish needs. Those are the needs of the mind and the emotion and the will. That is basically what your soul is. It’s your internal personality. It’s the thing you cannot see. The exterior is the house, but the soul is who you are. And in your soul, you have needs. You have needs for the mind. You put a person in isolation, like they do many times with prisoners, and you isolate him from other people, from human conversation, from human touch, from human experience, and you dry up like a bone. You’re made that way. God designed man in such a way that you have physical needs that when they are not met, you will die, and when you have soulish needs that are not met, you will dry up. The third element of humanity is the spirit, that you have a spirit, a human spirit, and on the day that Adam fell and died, it meant that he died to what was alive in him, and that was God’s spirit living in His human spirit, but His human spirit isn’t dead; it’s dead to what vacated it, and that was the life of God. So that’s why man is incurably religious. That’s why people like ______ could say there’s a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that can only be filled through His Son Jesus Christ, ________ Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee. Man is a restless being until he finds his rest in his Creator. Now, because satan is as clever as he is, he has absolutely annihilated humanity’s understanding of that truth, and so we think that the only need we have is a bodily need and a soulish need, and satan convinces us of that. When you see the need of the human spirit, the need of the spirit is to be loved unconditionally, to be accepted unconditionally, and to have meaning and purpose to your life, those are the three basic needs of the spirit of man. That is not a soulish need; that is a spiritual need. And the reason it’s a spiritual need is because it can only be met by God spiritually. To be loved unconditionally, do you have a need for that? Do you have a need to be accepted unconditionally?
Is there something inside of you that has been there all of your life saying, “Is there anyone out there who will just accept me for who I am?” Why do I have to be getting up every day and apologizing to the world for being alive? Why am I always having to seek acceptance from somebody? Is that right or wrong? It’s an internal need that is in each and every one of us, and we find in life that need is not met in the world. We can’t get it met in our parents. We can’t get it met in our boyfriends and girlfriends, you can’t get it met in your husband. You can’t get it met in your wife. You can’t get it met in your children. You can’t get it met, and yet the desire is there. And so, when you’ve got a desire that’s as strong as horseradish, and it can’t get met, guess what you do? Try new ways to get it met. There must be something wrong with who me. You look like you got it met, and we’ve learned, have we not? Physically, on the outside, to walk around looking like everything’s great. That’s why the holiday season messes people up. You look happier than you normally do, and I’m still as miserable. So now, because you look happier and I’m still as miserable, I’m more miserable than when you didn’t look quite so happy. You see. So we have to understand these truths, folks. That these needs cannot be met on this earth to have meaning and purpose to life, to have a reason for getting up in the morning, we think. Well, maybe my job will do that. Maybe this relationship will do that, and on and on and on and on we go. Do we not? Now you put two people in a married situation, where all of a sudden you got male and female trying to think alike. Lots of luck, and most people enter into marriage with the idea there’s a person who will meet my needs. Is that right or wrong? Finally, after all these years, I found one who will meet my needs. Well, what do you do? You become like ticks on a dog, sucking the life out each other, trying to get your mate to love you unconditionally, to accept you unconditionally, trying to get your marriage to bring you meaning and purpose to life, trying to get your job to bring you meaning and purpose to life, your career to bring you meaning and purpose to life, and you find out none of these things are working. And so the most logical thing is, I got the wrong one. Somebody out there is able to do this. Doesn’t seem to me that to be that big of a problem. I’m not that demanding. Only have a few needs. Somebody, I’ll be able to meet those sucker. So we go look for somebody else, and off we go, and it goes on and on and on and on, because those needs are not met. Now, where is the problem? That need that you have for unconditional love and unconditional acceptance, and for meaning and purpose to life, is a spiritual need, and can only be met spiritually. When you and I are ready to say, Lord Jesus, I’m not denying my need, but I’m recognizing something. Only you can meet it. Only you can love me unconditionally. I cannot love Amy unconditionally. I wish I could, but I can’t. And she can’t love me unconditionally. She can’t accept me unconditionally. You know, it’s amazing how we are. And I’ve heard people say that in counseling. I’ve asked people make a list of all the things that if your husband could would start doing that, you’d be happy. She makes a list. In about a month, comes back. How’s he doing? He started doing every one of those things, but I got a new list. It never ends, folks. The flesh is insatiable. You can satisfy 10 needs, and after the 10 are satisfied, you got 10 more, because the flesh is never satisfied. We have got to look at life realistically, straight in the eye. You can’t play fantasy games. Life is to be lived realistically. The Bible says soberly. That doesn’t mean to stay sober. It means look at life soberly. Look at life just like it is.
And folks, I’m going to tell you: when you look at life just like it is, it isn’t fun and games. It isn’t just Disneyland all over again. Folks, you got to look at life realistically. And that is the solution to life: is to step back and say soberly. What is life like? And I want to tell you something. It’s not a fairy tale. Marriage is not a place that you enter into to get goosebumps all the time. It’s a commitment to one another. It’s a lifelong commitment that you make to another person of saying, “I want to serve you for the rest of my life. I’m going to serve you in the good times.” We say that, don’t we? I’m going to serve you in the bad times. It’s a commitment that you make, and marriage is not all fun and games. Relationships of all kinds are not fun and games; it’s just real. So until we grab a hold of these truths, we’re going to be living in a fantasy land all your life, thinking there’s someone out there that can do it. Jesus did not say that our mind needed altered. He said it needs renewed. I need a mind renewed because I know something from the Bible: truth sets you free, and error puts you in bondage. So I don’t need altered. I need my mind renewed, and we need our mind renewed on truth. And there’s only one standard of truth that I know of, and that’s the Bible. Why does God say and give thanks in all things? For this is the will of God concerning you in Christ Jesus. Because thanksgiving is an attitude that will blast away that improper thinking pattern. When I understand that I don’t have emotional problems; I have thinking problems, because my mind is what triggers my emotion. I don’t care what that is. If you’re if you are feeling the emotion of jealousy, it’s because you’re thinking jealous thoughts. If you’re feeling the emotion of anger, it’s because you’re thinking what angry thoughts. That is a byproduct. That is not unusual. That’s the way we’re made. God made you that way, and so if I’m thinking, people will say about anxiety, and and you see that all the time, don’t you, on television? People have an anxiety attacks, and anxiety, and anxiety. What is anxiety? It’s an emotion concerning the future, when you say don’t be anxious about anything, what are you anxious about? What’s going to happen when? Tomorrow. I don’t have to get anxious about yesterday; it’s already happened. I’m anxious about what the consequences of that are going to be tomorrow, and so anxiety is tied into tomorrow. Now, I want to ask you a question: How many of you know anything about tomorrow? Any of you have a clue about tomorrow? Not a one. You know, if any of us could predict tomorrow, all you’d have to do is spend about 10 minutes on the stock exchange. You’d be a billionaire if you really knew what was going to happen tomorrow. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Isn’t that what Jesus said? Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. Why? You’re not there yet. Now, do my emotions know when I’m thinking about what bad’s going to happen to me tomorrow? Do my emotions know whether it’s going on or I just think it’s going on? Do they have a clue? Your emotions are dumb as dirt. All they can do is respond to whatever you are what thinking. So if I am thinking anxious thoughts, how can I help but feel anxiety? That’s an impossibility unless I’m living in some kind of denial, or I got my mind blocked in some way where I don’t even know what I’m thinking. When I’m thinking anxious thoughts about tomorrow, there is no option except for me to feel anxious. No option is that reality. Is your emotion real? Yeah, my emotion’s real, but what’s it based on? A fantasy. Based upon a fantasy.
Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries
Check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.
Bob George 14:23
just like you can sit in a movie theater and get the daylight scared out of you, knowing full we’ll you’re in a movie theater because you’re putting into your eye scary sights into your ears scary sounds, and your emotions don’t know whether you’re there or whether you’re getting killed out in a graveyard someplace. Don’t have a clue. They’re just responding predictably to whatever you’re thinking. Now you start thinking about all the bad things you’ve done, all the mistakes that you have made. We’ve all made them, have we not? All of the dumb decisions that we have. Made, we can always play the woulda, coulda, shoulda game. If only I woulda, coulda, shoulda, and we go back through all of these, and we start beating ourselves up over all these mistakes that we’ve made. When I’m sitting there thinking about the bad things that I did yesterday, do my emotions know that that’s not going on today? No, they’re just going to predictably respond to what, whatever I’m putting today in my mind. Even though what I’m putting in my mind happened 20 years ago. So you can sit there today and experience unbelievable guilt And regrets, and all of these unpleasant emotions today are gone. They’re over. But I can experience them as if they’re there by merely choosing to think about them. Is that right or wrong? That’s why he says, “Think upon these things, these things that are true, these things that are pure, these things that are good. Think upon those things.” Why? If you don’t think upon those, I’ll guarantee you, Satan, I’ll have you thinking on something else. Watch your mind, watch and guard your mind. All sin starts in your mind, and so we sit here wondering why am I miserable today because of what you’re thinking today. You’re thinking about all the bad stuff that you did yesterday. That’s enough to make me sick, and then you start thinking about all the bad things that are going to happen to you tomorrow, and it keeps what accumulating and accumulating and accumulating. We do that with each other by not what forgiving each other, being thankful for what we do have in each other instead of what we don’t have with each other. Folks, you don’t get resentful over relationships, over a one-time incident. It’s that you let them accumulate, and the more they accumulate, they keep going. And you remember why back 20 years ago, why you did this and you did this and you did this and you were this way, and we got those in there, don’t we? And Satan loves to dig them up. And folks, we got choices when these things happen because if we understand that these things are creating emotions, but I don’t have an emotional problem, I got a thinking problem, and we’re concentrating on the emotions I feel. And boy, those feelings are strong; they’re real, and that’s probably the most real thing you got going out of the way I feel, and I’m feeling pretty hard about you right now. And you never get back to start thinking why. Why am I feeling that way? Is because that’s the way I’m thinking. And why am I thinking that way? Because I’ve accumulated every bad thing you’ve ever done in your life, and I got it all down my little accounting system. I’ve got every bad thing I’ve ever done in my life. There are some people, as an example, who cannot receive love. You know why? You want love. You want it more than anything in the world. But because your self-image is so bad, you think anyone who loves you stupid. And so I’d really like to love you, but I don’t want to love anyone that dumb. Who would love me? I’m not worthy of being loved like that. You don’t know me the way I know me, and if you knew me the way I know me, you wouldn’t love me. So you must be dumb. And so you have people who cannot receive love. And folks, if you can’t receive love, you can’t give love, and so you spend your whole life denying yourself of the one thing you want more than anything else, and that’s love. There are people that carry that right on into their Christian experience, where you tell them about God’s love, they just can’t accept it.
Well, if you can’t accept His love for you, I got news for you. You’re never going to have love for anyone else, because you can’t conjure up love. It has to be a response. And if you can’t accept the love of God for you, how are you going to love others? The two ingredients, the two main ingredients of depression or any kind of adverse thinking starts with a misplaced dependency and an unrealistic expectation. Those two thinking patterns kick off things like fear and anger and self-pity and all of those type of things that are all ingredients to depression. But you can cure those and not cure the unrealistic expectation. You haven’t cured anything. So you have to go right back to the source of this problem. An unrealistic expectation is that everyone’s going to love me, or that everyone ought to hate me. Either one of those two. If you ever hit either one of them, everyone, if they really knew me the way. That I know me, they really ought to hate me. And then you got people they really ought to love me. This is really a big one. I don’t understand the world. I’m so good, and I am so wonderful that everyone should have loved me, but they don’t. My folks didn’t love me that much. My school kids didn’t love me. My teachers didn’t love me. This and this, so I’ll just cop out, and we find a way to cop out. Why? Well, I just can’t stand this unjust world in which I live in. It’s an unjust world. We have an expectation many times that our parents should have loved us differently, but what we don’t realize is they probably, if they didn’t, they had problems. They had some problems. The reason they had problems because their parents had problems. And see, you’re not going to have an ideal setting to be raised in. But you see, you can be, you can live in a family that’s all messed up. You can have one person who gets as messed up as his family did, and another person who goes out and becomes a minister. All in the same family. I have choices, and I can either cop out of life, or I can face life realistically. Now, folks, as you’re dealing with your young people, the importance of getting these truths into their minds, the truth of looking at life realistically, is because if you don’t, and you begin copying out, as an example, you begin hiding, copping out, taking something to ease the pain, your drugs, your alcohol, or whatever it might be. The minute you start doing that, what you’re doing is copping out of coping with life, so if I’ve started copping out at 15, and all of a sudden I’m here 20, and I’ve been copping out for five years, I’ve got the emotional ability to handle a 15-year-old problem, and I’m 20, and I can’t handle it. I don’t have the maturity to handle a 20-year-old problem. If I’m 30 and I copped out at 15, I got a 15-year problem because I still got the maturity of a 15-year-old trying to handle 30-year-old problems. When you’re 40, are you going to have 40-year-old problems? When you’re 50, you’re going to have 50-year-old problems. Absolutely, you’d better be equipped to handle them because I don’t want to handle 60-year-old problems with a 30-year-old maturity. So unrealistic expectations are very important to deal with your own life and with the lives of your young people. A misplaced dependency is the second area, and any dependency that is off of Jesus is misplaced. And so you don’t have to sit around and analyze that one very much. What is it? It’s a dependency on something rather than Jesus. If I have a problem, what does Jesus say to do? Cast all your cares upon me. What does the world say to do? Block it off. Take drugs. Take alcohol. Take this. Cop out. Act like it didn’t occurring. And as long as you’re out of it, why feels pretty good. The only problem is you got to sober up. What you have to come to realize is that when you’re dealing with any dependency that is on anything except the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s a misplaced dependency. So you ask yourself, “Well, what am I depending on?
Who am I depending on for my life, for my comfort?” He’s the one who says, “Come unto me; I’ll give you rest and peace. I am your peace. The world says, “No, no, I can give you some peace,” and that’s true, but it’s temporary. I can get some peace out by a mountain stream, but what happens when I leave the mountain stream? The peace that God gives us, He says, is the peace of God that passes all understanding. The world says, “Seek happiness.” God says, “I got something better for you. It’s called joy. I don’t want my dependency on being happy. You’ll hear people all the time talk about I want to be happy. You’ve missed it, guy. You missed it. What about being joyful? Because happiness is temporary. Joy is complete. Now, when I have a misplaced dependency or an unrealistic expectation, as an example, in regard to the world around me, and I believe that I should never be insulted or injured or rejected in any way, shape, or form. I’m going to live in disappointment, am I not? How many of you have ever been insulted or injured or rejected? Can I see your hands? Okay. Now I want to ask you another question: How many of you have ever insulted or injured or rejected another person? Now, do you know why the Bible says in this world you’re what you’re going to have tribulation? We give it and we receive it. Do we not? If I have an understanding that the whole world’s not going to love me, and the world ain’t going to like me, and I’m not always going to be getting my own way, and that. I don’t get my own way. I’m not buried in disappointment. Why? I really wasn’t expecting it anyway. So, in other words, when you approach life realistically, you’re not going to be buried under the disappointments of life. You’re not going to be buried under the insults and injuries and rejections. It’s not that you’re not going to experience disappointment, but the disappointment is not going to be so severe, and it’s in that seed bed of disappointment that we make a choice: Am I going to give thanks, or am I going to get angry and fearful, and wallow in self-pity? Those are my two choices. When you get disappointed in another person or in a circumstances, there’s where your choice comes. The severity, as I say, of that disappointment is in direct proportion to your unrealistic expectation or your misplaced dependency, not the severity of the insult or injury or rejection. So when you’re in that seed bed of disappointment, you got a choice. Give thanks in all things, for this is the will of God concerning you in Christ Jesus. Or to get fearful and angry that somebody could do that to me. Get fearful as to what the consequences are going to be in regard to that tomorrow, which is God’s country. And all of a sudden, I’m in this deep depth fear, and there’s no such thing as depression apart from fear. And so the choice comes in these kind of circumstances: as am I going to back up from this and say, Lord Jesus, you gave a promise to me. You will cause all things to work together for my good to those who love the Lord and to those who are called according to His purpose, folks. That’s a promise of God. I listen to this, guys. I will cause all things to work together for your good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Are you called according to His purpose? Do you realize that you are called by a God who loves you perfectly? And if you have a God who loves you perfectly, can you depend upon a God like that? And can you trust a God like that? Then trust Him that even though I’m going through pits, God will take it and cause it to work together for my good.
Announcer
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help, that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.