Category: Thankfulness Is…

Welcome to Day 1 of our 8-day series: Thankfulness is… 

Each day of this series we will focus on a verse or passage that helps us understand what gratitude is and why it is important.

Today’s passage is Psalm 50:7-15. Pause to read these verses, and consider your thoughts before reading the devotional below.

Animal sacrifices aren’t something we do today, but in the Old Testament God laid out his instructions for the priests to sacrifice animals as an atonement for sin. Today’s passage reveals more about the fact that God views these sacrifices as mere symbols, and he actually wants something much more valuable.

God doesn’t want your money. Or your animal sacrifices. Or your impressive empty words. He wants your thankful heart. Don’t just sin and then try to make it up to God. That’s like a bad relationship where someone keeps doing the same harm over and over and continually tries to make it all okay. Sin is not okay, and no amount of animal sacrifice (or nice but empty words) is going to change that. God owns everything in the world. He doesn’t need more animals. He does not delight in death. Thankfulness is our genuine sacrifice to God. What will you bring to God today?

Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

What happens when you accept Jesus as your Lord? What does that even mean? If you’ve been around church a while, you most likely have an answer to those questions. That is exactly why it is important to pause and ask them again. A lord is a type of ruler, like a king, who has authority and governance over you. Most people in those days had a belief in some kind of spiritual power who had control over things like the weather and who got to live or die. Accepting Jesus meant believing that he was God and the one who had control over those things.

Notice that we cannot merely accept Jesus and then carry on as we wait for our ride to Heaven. No, we must continue to follow him. He is the very source or our life — the water for our roots, the foundation for all that we are building. What does this mean in the real world? It means that when life is confusing and hard and nothing makes sense, you cling to Jesus and all that is true harder than anything you’ve ever held onto before. The result? Thankfulness.

We try too hard sometimes to “be” thankful when in reality we will naturally overflow with the stuff when we hold on to Jesus. In every situation and storm you are facing, thankfulness will pour out of you in the end because Jesus’ way works every time. It’s hard to see that or believe it while you’re in the midst of going through it. Do you believe Jesus can get you through right now? Is there another side where your faith is stronger than ever and your whole being exudes thankfulness? The only way to find out is to hold on to Jesus with everything you’ve got.

Ephesians 5:1-4 (NLT)

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us^[a] and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.

Children are designed to imitate. For good or bad, kids do what they see the adults doing around them. (When my children were toddlers I remember learning a lot about phrases I use repeatedly, because that is what they walked around saying when they were playing…) God is our Father, and we as his children can imitate him. Of course, we can imitate the world too, as those influences are strong around us. We have to choose who and what we will look at as our example to follow.

Sexual immorality, impurity, greed… Sounds pretty much like America. Turn to any channel between 8-11pm and you are guaranteed to find plenty of television shows with obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes. That is pretty much the outline for every sitcom. These are not for you. There is something much, much better.

It’s hard to get rid of something in your life if you do not have a replacement. Here we have an alternative option when we want to participate in sinful talk: be thankful instead. You might turn a few heads at the water cooler at first, but you’ll quickly become known for being an encouraging and positive person. While people may mock that at first, you will win them over eventually because people are actually drawn to better ways of living. And I bet that if we all just took away one 30-minute TV show and used that time to write out all that we are thankful for instead, it would change our world. Try it and find out!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 (NLT)

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”

I am a therapist, so Paul is breaking my cardinal rules here in using words like “always” and “never.” Not great for conflict resolution, but actually quite appropriate when you are talking about spiritual realities. “Always” and “never” in this context reminds us that we are in an eternal journey that will never stop. We can remain eternally joyful. We will never stop communicating with God. For all of eternity, these realities are permanent fixtures because they come from the heart of the Holy Spirit and not from ourselves.

Being thankful is sandwiched right between “never stop praying” and “do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” This is a list of spiritual disciplines that are essential for staying connected to the supernatural realm. There are a whole lot of things that will seem spiritual but aren’t. Too many “Christians” fail to use their critical thinking skills and end up falling for the latest scam. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Reject evil. Sounds like a pretty good plan.

In case you were looking for a map or a plan or some writing in the sky, there it is. GOD’S WILL FOR YOU: be thankful in all circumstances. Usually we want God’s will to be a complicated or impressive plan that involves us getting rich and famous. It’s a God/Santa/Lottery/American dream mashup. That is hardly ever God’s will for your life. But a thankful heart? You can’t go wrong with that any day of the week. It is easy to be everything BUT thankful. If you want to start a real revolution, cultivate gratitude no matter what you are going through.

Colossians 4:2-3 (NLT)

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.”

There are so many words that jump out at me in this passage: devote, prayer, alert, thankful, mysterious, and chains. Let’s think about what it means to be devoted to something. The dictionary says that to “devote” means “to give all or a large part of one’s resources to a person, activity, or cause.” Notice Paul does not say, “Devote all your money to me!” as we have so often heard from false preachers. He wants the early believers to spend as much of their time in prayer as possible. The word “alert” reminds us of the spiritual battle going on. Being alert in prayer is exactly what the disciples failed at in Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to pray and they fell asleep.

A thankful heart is an interesting juxtaposition to the last word of these sentences: chains. If a key leader of your movement is thrown in prison and your life could be next, thankful may not be where you are at in that moment. This is where the word “mysterious” comes in. Paul is reminding his readers that God has a plan, and it may look like everything is going wrong, but it isn’t. Jesus’ plan for salvation was a mysterious one, and his plan for the spread of the Gospel is no different. Paul is perfectly willing to be thrown into prison for it.

Are you in the midst of trying to do what God wants but you feel like you keep hitting walls? Are you doubting whether you can stay in the fight? Are you looking at your chains thinking this is the end of the line? Well God is winning. The battle around you might be failing, and you might be losing, but he will win in your life if you have given it to him. You might lose some earthly things, but you are on an eternal journey that cannot be stolen. Thankfulness is a way to connect with the reality of your spiritual victory.