As followers of Jesus, we have a lot to be thankful for. We
have been given every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3), including
redemption and forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 1:7). It is no surprise, then,
that we are told many times in Scripture to be thankful. In fact, our worship
and our prayer are both to be characterized by thanksgiving “always and for
everything” (Eph. 5:19-20; Philip. 4:6). But there is one passage in particular
where we see a concentration of words about thankfulness. It comes in the
middle of Colossians 3, right after Paul admonishes us to “put to death” the things
that characterize our old life and to “put on” the things that characterize a
life reborn in Christ. Paul closes the section saying this:
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you
were called in one body. And be thankful. 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. And
whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:15-17, ESV
Did you catch them all? In these three verses, there are
three forms of the word ‘thank’ in quick succession. “Be thankful…with
thankfulness…giving thanks.” First, we are to “be thankful.” In other words,
gratitude should describe our very being. Think about the ways we describe
people. We might say someone is hilarious, smart, creative, kind, etc. You
might have had those things said about you. But has anyone ever described you
as thankful? When people look at our lives, would thankful be an adjective they
would use? May God grow in us a spirit of thanksgiving such that we are known
as people who are thankful to our core.
Second, we are to live “with thankfulness.” Here we see a
noun form of the word serving as the object of the preposition “with”, thus explaining
something that should accompany various actions we undertake. Specifically
here, we are to let Scripture dwell richly inside of us, which involves
teaching and admonishing others wisely and singing, and all of this is to be
done with something (v. 16). That something is thankfulness. Not greed or
self-righteousness or a savior-complex or an inflated ego or resentment or
self-sufficiency or callousness but thankfulness. And not just generic
thankfulness, but thankfulness directed to God. Our time in the Word, our
conversations with others, and our expression in music should all be accompanied
by thankfulness to the One who has made all of those things—and even our very
lives—possible.
Third, we see that no matter what we do, we should be
actively giving thanks (v. 17). Whether we are speaking or doing, we are to do
everything for the Lord and be giving thanks to Him while we’re at it. But
let’s be real. That is so much easier to say or to write than to live. Sometimes
life is filled with things that we did not ask for or did not see coming or do
not appreciate, and in the face of those things, it can be really hard to give thanks, much less to be thankful. But as with most things, it
comes down to a choice.
As followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit within us,
who is beyond powerful enough to give us the ability to give thanks in any and
every circumstance. We just have to make the choice to tap into that power
instead of wallowing in the bitterness, discontentment, or apathy that we so
often nurture. A thankful heart is what God desires for us, so of course He can
equip us to exhibit that heart. We just have to step out in obedience and
decide to give thanks even when we don’t feel thankful. We have to listen to
the truth of God’s Word that we have stored in our head each time our heart
tries to convince us that God isn’t there or that, if He is, He isn’t good.
When we make those conscious, and sometimes incredibly
difficult, decisions over and over and over again to give thanks from our heads,
then it becomes easier and easier to read and pray and sing and speak with thankfulness in our hearts, as God through Paul admonished
us to do. And as we live out our faith with thankfulness in our hearts, God
grows us into people who are characterized by gratitude, people who don’t just
give thanks but who can be thankful.
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