A Thankful Heart
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of the greatest challenges in the lives of Americans is to be thankful. There
are those who feel that it is enough to be thankful once a year on a special
holiday. Then there are others who never get around to being thankful. These receive
an abundance of God’s daily blessings without ever looking up. These are like a
greedy pig eating apples under a tree without ever looking up to the tree that
grew them. Those who are without thanksgiving in their hearts never look up!
God’s
word teaches us that every day must be Thanksgiving Day to Christians. For
without thanksgiving in our hearts, all other aspects of Christianity will
fail.
Recently
while thinking about the apostle Paul, I began to consider his many outstanding
Characteristics. Immediately I associated Paul with being thankful. In fact
(other than Jesus) the thought occurred to me that he was more thankful than
any other one in the New Testament. However, this needed to be proven, so I fed
into the computer such words as thanksgiving, thanks, thank God, and thankful.
The results verified my conclusion. Paul used thanksgiving nine times, the word
thanks, twenty-four times, thank God or Christ, eleven times, and the word
thankful, two times. In summation, Paul used all these words of gratitude,
forty-six times.
Therefore,
Paul was a man with thanksgiving in his heart. Please consider some of the
areas in which Paul was thankful.
It
seems that Paul thanked God daily for grace and salvation. Why did he feel so
much gratitude for this? To answer, we need to think for a few moments about
his past.
Paul
grew up in Tarsus as a strict Jew and a staunch supporter of Judaism. In those
earlier years, he was called Saul, and he took his religion seriously. He was a
Pharisee, but nothing is said that he was a hypocrite like the Pharisees of
Jesus’ day. In fact, Saul was right in his religion until Jesus came, but at
this point, he became an enemy to God.
As
a strict Jew, he was looking for the Messiah, but he did not believe that Jesus
was the One. Therefore, his mission in life was to stop Christianity in every
possible way. He bound Christians and put them in prison, and even gave his
consent to have some put to death (Acts 8:1).
Therefore,
as the worst enemy of Christianity, he made havoc of the church (Acts 8:3). However, the time came for God to stop this man. One
day while on the road to Damascus to continue his sinful work, Jesus appeared
in a great light and convinced him that he was wrong. Three days later, as a
penitent believer, he was told to be baptized to wash away his sins (Acts
22:16). After this, the worst enemy
of Christ became His best friend.
Thus
it seems, that from his conversion until his death, Paul
was thankful to God and His Son for the gift of His grace and
salvation. To the Christians at Corinth, Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God for
His indescribable gift,” (2 Corinthians 9:15).
Paul
also taught others to thank God. “Giving
thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ,” (Ephesians 5:20).
“Giving thanks to the Father who has
qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light,”
(Colossians 1:12).
Are
we (as Christians) thankful for the true church that Jesus purchased with His
blood? (Acts 20:28). Are we
thankful for knowing the purity of the truth of God’s word? Are we thankful to
see the difference between truth and error? Remember, millions die without ever
knowing the truth! They know only religious error.
Paul
knew the purity of the gospel and God’s grace through Jesus, and thanked Him
often for it. “I thank my God always
concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,” (1
Corinthians 1:4). In every way, Paul
was thankful for grace and salvation. How rich our lives will be if we will
live and teach this same thanksgiving toward God!
One
cannot read through the writings of Paul without realizing that he loved his
brothers and sisters in Christ, and thanked God for them. Yes they had their
weaknesses, but he still believed in them and recognized their value and
importance to God.
Please
observe some of his expressions of thanksgiving for his brethren:
I
“do not cease to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers:” (Ephesians 1:16).
“We
give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, praying always for you,” (Colossians 1:3).
“We
give thanks to God always for you, making mention
of you in our prayers (1 Thessalonians 1:2).
“First,
I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all,
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world,” (Romans 1:8).
“I
thank God upon every remembrance of you,”
(Philippians 1:3).
“We
are bound to thank
God always for
you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the
love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
Do we have this kind of love and thanksgiving toward our spiritual family? Do we feel like Paul and like John, gratitude for our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Thankful For
Everything
One
of the reasons why Paul was so outstanding as a Christian and servant of God
was because he was thankful for everything. This truth is expressed in these
words, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving
thanks to God the
Father through Him,” (Colossians 3:17).
Are we thankful to God for living in this beautiful country of America? Are we thankful for our livelihood that provides all the necessities of our lives? Millions in the world go to sleep each night hungry! Are we thankful for our families and the houses that shelter us from the hot and cold of the seasons? How grateful are we for friends, neighbors, and our spiritual family in Christ? Do we daily feel thankfulness for the beauties of God’s creation?
Won’t
you agree that we need to stop and smell the roses, and to daily count our
blessings?
The
story is told of a man who became tired of the house and property where he
lived. Therefore, he called a realtor to appraise his property, and to write a
description of it for the newspaper. He wanted to sell! But when he read the
description of what he had, he immediately called the realtor and said, “Please
take my property off the market, this place is exactly what I have always
wanted.” This man just needed to count his many blessings, and to name them one
by one.
Paul
believed that both the good and the bad things in his life were important.
Therefore, he wrote, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you,” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Even his weaknesses made him strong, and
his time in prison for Christ, brought special blessings (2 Corinthians
12:10; Philippians 1:12,13).
Do
we thank God ONLY for the good in our lives, or do we also thank Him for all
things knowing that He will give us what we need? When we pray, do we always
pray with thanksgiving?
Remember,
without being thankful, we can never please God! —BBBristow