Thanks to God!

Thanks to God for my Redeemer, thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory, thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten, thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered, thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered, thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure, thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure, thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside, thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside, thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow, thanks through all eternity!

By August Ludvig Storm - 1862-1914I love the melody:

The melody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hRly7OaSJs

August Ludvig Storm wrote this hymn in 1891. He was a twenty-nine years old Swede, who had been led to saving faith during a Salvation Army meeting in Stockholm. In grateful appreciation, he joined the ministry and became a preacher and teacher.

This hymn is based on a list he wrote with 24 reasons for thanksgiving -- sources of tears as well as smiles. It expressed his praise to God in the midst of pain as well as pleasure -- in difficulties as well as delights. I tend to believe that the pain and difficulties of his life did more to build strength and gratefulness in His heart than did any of his human pleasure.

Eight years after writing this hymn, August Storm faced a crippling back problem. But God used his disability to prove His sufficiency -- and to give additional depth to the young man's teaching and writing.

Like the apostle Paul, this faithful servant probably cried out to His beloved Master for relief. And God would have answered through His Word: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” -- to which his heart would have responded with the gratefulness of Paul:

“Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthian 12:7-10

Storm's high calling to continual suffering made his life all the more a testimony to God's sufficiency. He knew the source of endurance and gave God the glory.

See also Thanksgiving - Our response to God's Goodness

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