“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration! It’s always good to remind ourselves just how important the giving of thanks to God is for the Christian. We’ll get back to Proverbs next week.
I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us that giving thanks is the will of God for us. If we have ever asked, “I wonder what God’s will is?” in a situation, here is the answer: give thanks in everything! Actually, the giving of thanks is included with rejoicing always and praying without ceasing as God’s will for us. These commands are not hyperbole. This verse reveals that we are to have a constantly God-focused character. Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks should be who we are in Christ. We are to be perpetually thankful, not only for God’s providence at the founding of our nation but for everything!
In our home one practical way we try to help foster thankfulness in our hearts is to take the time to write down the things we are thankful for as they happen and put them in a box. As the year goes on the box gets pretty full of notes with thankfulness! Then at Thanksgiving we read all the little notes of things we were thankful for that were collected throughout the year. I’m always amazed at the things we have forgotten that we were thankful for, and I’m always reminded how easy it is to complain.
Complaining comes naturally to us, and we are very good at it. We complain about everything. Ironically, our joy and peace is not robbed by whatever the thing is that we are complaining about. The Scripture says that in Christ we can have peace in any situation. It is the act of complaining that robs us of joy and peace. God hates complaining. In I Corinthians 10:10 Paul says that the Israelites complained in the desert and were destroyed by the destroyer. In the wilderness Israel complained about everything, even the blessings God gave them. Paul says those things were written for our admonition, so that we would not fall into the same sins they did and be destroyed. Complaining destroys. Thanksgiving builds.
In the Old Covenant there were three main types of offerings: the Sin Offering, the Ascension Offering, and the Peace Offering. There were several types of peace offerings and by far the most frequently mentioned is called the Thank Offering. It’s mentioned so often that it is used synonymously with the Peace Offering. The giving of thanks should be seen as an offering that we give to God.
The giving of thank offerings to God is the fruit of a perpetually thankful heart and serves to encourage even more thankfulness to God. This is the picture of the heavenly worship in Revelation 7:12. “All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
In the midst of such exalted concepts as blessing, glory, wisdom, and honor, we often forget that thanksgiving is also in that grand list of things that God is worthy to receive. This Thanksgiving let’s renew our commitment to cease complaining and more frequently bring God the offering of thanks that He deserves for everything He does for us.
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn