Thanksgiving Through Thanks-Living

Sir, Michael Costa, a famous composer and conductor from Naples, was once rehearsing

with a vast array of instruments, and hundreds of voices. With the thunder of the organ; the

role of the drums; the sounding of the horns, and the clashing of the symbols, the mighty

chorus rang out. The piccolo player said himself, "In all this din it matters not what I do!"

So he ceased to play. Suddenly Costa stopped and flung up his hands. All was still, and he

shouted out, "Where is the piccolo?" His sensitive ear missed it, and it's absence made a

difference to him.

God, likewise, has a sensitive ear, and misses every voice not lifted in praise and

thanksgiving. It makes a difference whether we thank God or not. We may often feel like

the piccolo player that it does not matter. With all the angels of heaven singing, and millions

of voices on earth joining them with songs of thanksgiving, how can it matter what we do?

For us to say thank you Lord seems even more insufficient than the skill of a piccolo player

in a colossal symphony. Our benefits and blessings are so great, and our ability to express

our gratitude so inadequate, that we sometimes question if we are really thankful at all. The

more one counts his blessings, the more inadequate he feels to give thanks. Simon

Greenberg expresses this in poetry.

Five thousand breathless dawns all new,

Five thousand flowers fresh in dew;

Five thousand sunsets wrapped in gold,

One million snowflakes served ice cold;

Five quite friends; one baby's love,

One white mad sea with clouds above;

One hundred music-haunted dreams,

Of moon-drenched roads and hurrying streams;

Of prophesying winds, and trees,

Of silent stars and browsing bees,

One June night in a fragrant wood; On heart that loved and understood.

I wondered when I waked at day,

How-how in God's name-I could pay!

We can't even begin to thank God enough for all the blessings of nature and loved ones,

let alone for the gift of salvation and eternal life. To think of paying is foolish, for we are

indebted to an infinite measure. The question is, how can we thank God? He hears our weak

prayer of thanks and counts it essential, but even so, we know that words are cheap and cost

us nothing. Certainly there is some way to express our gratitude to God in a more concrete

and practical way. Paul here in Col. 3:15-17 gives us, I think, just what we are looking for to

make thanksgiving a truly vital aspect of our lives. He gives us in these verses three ways in

which we can give thanksgiving through thanks-living. The first way is connected with-

I. THE PEACE OF CHRIST. v.15.

Paul says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Peace us one of gifts Jesus left with

His disciples before He went to the cross. It Is not an exclusive gift to them only, however,

but is the possession of all believers who are united to Christ by faith. But it is one thing to

possess the peace of Christ, and another to let the peace of Christ possess you. It is the

latter that Paul is urging upon the Colossian Christians. The degree to which we let the peace

of Christ rule in our hearts is the measure of our gratitude for the gift of His peace. Paul

connects being thankful directly with letting peace rule in our hearts. The peace of Christ

could never rule in the unthankful heart. The two are mutual aids. The more thankful one is,

the more the peace of Christ will rule, and the more it rules, the more thankful one is.

Paul is certainly an example of this. He writes this from prison where he could very soon

suffer a violent death, and yet he writes of peace and being thankful. Paul was thankful for

every state he was in, for the peace of Christ reigned in his heart. His was a life of

thanksliving, for he lived always for the end of pleasing God. He urges all Christians to

pursue a like path by letting the peace of Christ rule in their hearts.

So shall our walk to close to God,

Calm and serene our frame,

So purer light shall mark the road

That leads us to the Lamb.

What does it mean to let the peace of Christ rule? The Greek word is the term for

umpire. In a baseball game, if a dispute breaks out, the umpire must make a decision and

settle the dispute. Lightfoot, the Greek scholar, says of this word, "Wherever there is a

conflict of motives or impulses or reasons, the peace of Christ must step in and decide which