BE THANKFUL
Colossians 3:15-17
Thanksgiving is the holiday dedicated to giving thanks for things. Interestingly, the words thank and think have the same root, reminding us that thanksgiving comes from thinking about our blessings. But you may not be feeling very thankful lately. You might think there isn't anything to really be thankful for. Sometimes all we need is a little perspective.
Dr. Robert Hill and his wife were visiting Thailand where they were invited to a celebration put on by the King and Queen. Their native guide, Joseph, was driving them there from their hotel room. He didn't know English very well, but he was delighted to talk with them. "Where do you live," he asked. "Richmond, Virginia." "Oh, are you a rich man?" "No," Bob laughed, "we're not rich."
"Do you have an automobile?" "Yes, actually we have two." He then asked about the house we lived in. "It's a simple house; just ten rooms total." Joseph was amazed, especially when he explained that he and his family lived in just two small rooms. Then he asked about our family. We told him we had four children; two in college and two at home.
Joseph was silent for a moment. Then he said, "You are rich." My wife and I laughed but deep down we knew he was right, though we had never thought of it in those terms. We were rich; but were we thankful? Let's see if we can gain some perspective on why we should be thankful; not just at Thanksgiving time, but all the time.
1) "And be thankful."
Col. 3:15-17, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
In each of these three verses Paul is focusing on something different but interestingly, each verse contains something about being thankful. In verse 15 he's talking about letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. And at the end of it, as if it's an afterthought, he adds, "and be thankful". "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot-be thankful". However, that couldn't be further from the truth. Being thankful was never an afterthought to Paul; it was a major focus.
There is a connection between being thankful and being at peace. More on that in a minute. In the next verse we see him telling us to let God's word fill us up. Then he wants us to teach, admonish (scold) and sing songs. He wants us to do all this with gratitude in our hearts.
We sing a song with the line, "Give thanks, with a grateful heart". That begs the question, well, what other kind of heart would you be giving thanks with? An apathetic heart. We're saying 'thanks' but we don't really mean it or there's not much feeling behind it. We could give thanks with an entitled heart. We're saying, 'thanks' but we might as well be saying, 'well, it's about time'.
We can say, 'thank you' as a formality without being very sincere. We can do this when we bow our heads at the dinner table. "Thank you, Lord for the food we are about to receive-yada, yada, yada." Let my 'thank you' not be a formality; but a heartfelt expression of thoughtfulness towards God for what he's blessed me with.
In the verses that follow, Paul describes how to conduct our relationships at home and work. Towards the end of his letter, shortly before his final instructions, he says in 4:2, " Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Again we see Paul attaching thankfulness to another aspect of the Christian life-prayer.
It's typical for us to ask for things when we pray. There's nothing wrong with that; we should be coming to God with our concerns and requests. However, that should not be the only component of our prayers. They should be also filled with praise and gratitude. In fact, I think it's good to have some of our prayers be only about praising God and thanking him for what he has already done.
Did you know that praying with thanksgiving helps us to relieve our anxiety and give us peace? Phil. 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
We might do various things to try to relieve our anxiety but we see here that praying with thanksgiving plays a big role in relieving my stress and establishing peace. If I concentrate on all the things God has done for me, if I focus on all the times he's rescued me and come through for me then I realize that I don't need to be worried about anything. That will bring peace to my heart and mind. If I continue praying with thanksgiving in my heart I will continue to be able to give whatever is concerning me over to God and be at peace with it; no matter how things turn out.
Paul talks about being thankful many times in these verses in Colossians. Whether the subject is peace, God's word, teaching, singing, praying or anything else in between, Paul wants there to be thanksgiving in our hearts. When we go to chpt. 2, we see the biggest reason why. 2:6-7, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."
There are many things we can be thankful for but first and foremost we need to be thankful for Jesus. Because we are born again, because we have received forgiveness for our sins and the indwelling Holy Spirit, because we have eternal life, we need to overflow with thankfulness; it needs to be pouring out of us.
If nothing else is going right in your life today, if you're a Christian you have reasons to overflow with gratitude. That's not easy to do; especially when we're facing a hardship. It's easier to focus on our problems than on what we have in Christ. Our problems are tangible; they're visual and impactful-physically, emotionally and psychologically. But, just because the realities of Christ are mostly spiritual; that doesn't make them any less tangible.
What we have in Christ isn't just futuristic; they're a present-day reality. The power of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the provisions of God, these are just as real as anything else but sometimes it feels like the things we can see are more dominant that the things we can't see. So, even though life can be difficult, if we have Jesus we still have plenty of reasons to be thankful.
2) "For everything".
In Col. 3:17, we see that Paul says that whatever we do should be done with a spirit of thanksgiving. In the previous verse he talks about being filled with the word. The word of God should be in our minds, in our hearts and in our actions. We should be reading the bible with thankfulness. How grateful are we for the bible? How would we feel if we suddenly lost access to it? How would that affect us? We have such easy access to the word of God today but how much do we take advantage of it?
Does our study of God's word stem from desire or obligation? Do we open God's word with excitement, wondering what he has to say to us today? Do we see it as our daily bread? Do we approach it looking for nuggets of wisdom to apply to our lives each day? Are we thrilled when we understand something new? Are we grateful that God revealed something previously unseen to us? We need to be thankful for the word.
Vs. 16 goes on to talk about what we do with it. We teach it, we sharpen one another with it; we sing it. That's an interesting one-singing the word of God? That's what a lot of the Psalms were about. Many of the songs we sing today are based on the Psalms. One song we sing has the line, "I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart".
This is taken from Psalm 100:4-5, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Entering his gates and courts refers to the temple; the place of worship for the Jews. For us that would mean the church.
Is this how we are when we come to church? Are we thankful to be here? Are we here merely out of duty or obligation or do we come with praise and gratitude for God's goodness, love and faithfulness? Though there may be times when we drag ourselves to church and times when we're not in the greatest of moods, that should be few and far between. We need to enter into the house of the Lord ready to engage with Him and each other in love and gratitude.
Eph. 5:19-20, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the way to speak to each other. We speak praise, we speak joy, we speak from the spirit. If we have thanksgiving in our hearts then it will come out of our mouths.
This goes with what Paul said earlier in verse four, "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving." The way we used to talk may have been filled with obscenities, dirty jokes and foolishness. We complained more than we gave thanks. Miserable speech; venomous speech; ungrateful speech. But now that we're saved we are to imitate God, as dearly loved children (vs. 1).
Notice Paul says in vs. 20, "always giving thanks for everything". Paul isn't saying when something tragic happens our first response should be, 'thanks, God'. That's not likely going to happen. We're going to have emotional reactions to the travesties in our lives. Paul is saying regardless of what happens we need to carry on an attitude of thanksgiving. This helps to guard us from developing a bitter spirit in times of hardship and difficulty.
This is how Job protected himself. When he lost all his kids and all his livestock he responded with, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised". This doesn't mean Job didn't have any emotional responses to his great loss. But because he loved God and had thanksgiving in his heart he was able to praise God even though he suffered this monumental loss.
We're not supposed to have an attitude of gratitude only when things are going well, but all the time. Paul said in 1st Thess. 5:16-18, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
You may be thinking, 'he can't be serious'. Who can be joyful all the time? Who gives thanks in every circumstance? That's nice for you, Paul but that's not how it is in the real world. Paul must have lived an easy, trouble free life to say something like this?
Actually, Paul's life was full of hardship and difficulties. During his ministry he was beaten and whipped. He was pelted with stones and left for dead. He was shipwrecked and floating in the open sea for a whole day. There were times when he was naked and cold and hungry. He spent time in prison, he was ridiculed and rejected, abandoned and alone; the list goes on and on. Paul had anything but a sheltered, comfortable life.
Okay, so how could he say these things if he suffered like this? Because of Jesus. Living for Jesus doesn't remove us from life's troubles, but having the Holy Spirit inside us enables us to deal with our problems in a better way. We're able to find comfort and peace in the midst of the storm. We're able to see the bright light in the surrounding darkness.
We're able to find the positive in a tragic situation. We're able to have hope when things seem bleak. We can find the strength to press on when we feel like giving up. Joy despite our circumstances because joy is a state of being, not a feeling. Having Jesus equips us to find something to be thankful for even when your whole world just got turned upside down.
This doesn't mean we won't have typical feelings and reactions when bad things happen. It's not like Paul was happy-go-lucky all the time or oblivious to reality. He got angry, he was sad; he was human like the rest of us. But, his overall state of being was joyful, prayerful, thankful-despite all the rotten things that happened to him.
"Henry Frost served for many years as a missionary to China. In his journal he wrote of a very difficult time in his life. He says, "I had received sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed, but the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, but the darkness only deepened. Then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: try thanksgiving. I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return."
This might not happen as instantaneous for you but the main thing is, when we find something to be thankful for in our dark times, there's a release that happens; a freedom that occurs. The reality of your situation may still be the same; even though Henry's shadow vanished the sad news he received hadn't changed. But in finding something to be thankful for, suddenly your mood isn't as somber as it was a minute ago. In being thankful, you're able to view things from a new perspective.
One of the times Paul was in prison for his faith, he wrote this in Phil. 1:12-19, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance."
What an attitude. Paul was in prison because of his devotion to Christ but he was able to be positive; he was able to focus on the fact that his imprisonment helped other Christians to be more motivated to spread the gospel. Even though Paul knew some of them did it in spite, he didn't get upset over that. Instead he focused on the positive-that Christ was being preached.
It was as if was saying, "I know there are some who are envious and preaching Christ to try to outshine me, like it's a contest or something. I know they're trying to make trouble for me, but it's not going to work. Not that I want them to preach Christ with selfish motives, but at least they're preaching the gospel; and in the end that's what matters."
For Paul, it was about Jesus. Not that he didn't care about anything else; but the most important thing in his life was Jesus. So, when he was suffering, if in some way it served a purpose for bringing him closer to Christ or caused him to be more like Christ, or it helped to serve the kingdom of God in some way, then he was willing to suffer. Paul felt the ends justified the means when it came to the advancement of the gospel.
Your life may not be going well right now. As we approach Thanksgiving you might be wondering what there is to be thankful for. What helps me is to put things in perspective. No matter what I'm dealing with, there comes a moment when I contemplate how it could be worse; because no matter what-it could always be worse. So often when I'm dealing with something God shows me someone who's worse off than me. And that helps me to be more thankful. It doesn't change my situation; but it changes how I look at the overall picture while I deal with my situation.
An experiment was done in New York’s Central Park where an advertizing firm dressed a man up as a blind man and gave him a cup to collect money. They put a sign around his neck that read, "I’m Blind." He collected about $4.00. The next day they dressed him the same way, placed him in the same place but changed the sign to read, "It’s Springtime and I’m Blind." That day he collected nearly $40.00.
That reality caused people to realize how blessed they were to be able to view all the beautiful flowers, birds, the sunrise and sunset. It's easy to take certain things for granted. The ability to see or hear or walk. The beauty of nature. The People in our lives. The breath of life itself.
The everyday things can become routine and we get to where we don't recognize how thankful we need to be for them. No matter what, there's always something to be thankful for. Giving thanks isn't always an easy thing to do. But it's something we need to do for our overall spiritual well being.
While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit suddenly turned around. "It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," remarked Hinton. "The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, "Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?"
Hinton just stood there for a moment; stunned by her request. Overcome with emotion, he left the service. He was followed out by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again." "Yes I will," Hinton replied, "but I'll never sing it the same way again." No matter what happens, we can still be thankful.
