27.11.13

Thankfulness Becomes Us -


  
“Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
-Psalm 106:1

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
- Colossians 3:16

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
- Revelation 7:9-12

“There is no sacrifice in which God takes greater delight than the expression of our gratitude.”
- John Calvin, commenting on Psalm 135:1, Calvin’s Wisdom, p. 135

“Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels.”
-Thomas Watson, A Puritan Golden Treasury

What is it that sets us apart from other created beings? Apart from the obvious, some have said that only man has the capability to think God’s thoughts after Him. It also follows that intentional thankfulness separates us from brute beasts. We are those who declare gratitude to God for His manifold kindness. We contemplate God’s mercies and then verbalize thankfulness. The character of the Christian is intended to be one of pervasive and effusive gratitude. When we consider what God has done we simply cannot help it. In the great work of the gospel thankfulness is an important and necessary work of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Christian. In fact, an unthankful Christian is a contradiction in terms. The Christian’s thankfulness is to be declared both to God and others, and the Christian’s thankfulness is to be genuine, demonstrative, and infectious. Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians is this, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7) Receiving Christ and walking in Him as we're rooted and established in the faith, is to provoke us to great thanksgiving. In a world where thankfulness is often a rarity, and murmur and complaint often carry the day, the Christian recognizes that thanksgiving is not simply a holiday in November, but abounding thanksgiving is a way of life.  Everything we have is a direct result of the kind beneficence of our Creator. In everything give thanks, because as those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord, thanksgiving becomes us.

-DJM