Inspiration & Worship

How Thankful?

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. – C.S. Lewis

Few habits improve our personal happiness more than seeing what’s good and being thankful for it. This is true for all people, but for Christians, it’s central to being an imitator of Jesus Christ.

Most of us know that gratitude to God is a good habit. But backing up our gratitude with loving obedience to God is quite another thing. We like the word “thankful” much more than the word “obedient.” Gratitude is an attitude – a very important one. But obedience is action born from that gratitude. It involves changing our way of thinking to God’s way of thinking as we become a “new creature in Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:17)

Dozens of scriptures show Jesus living in gratitude. He began and ended his prayers with words of thanks and taught us to do the same (Matthew 6:9-13). But his gratitude ran much deeper than words. No moment of his life better illustrated his loving obedience than his darkest hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he knew that pain and death were imminent. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 42:22 NIV)

If we say we’re thankful for the blessings God gives us, yet we selfishly hoard those blessing, are we truly thankful? If we say we love God but allow ourselves to despise other people, are we truly thankful? Do we really believe “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it,” as King David – “a man after God’s own heart” – proclaimed in Psalm 24:1?

We all face pain at some point. But even in the darkest moments we can choose to be grateful for our countless blessings. And, we can act on that gratitude by obeying the two greatest commandments identified by Jesus Christ:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37 & 38) ❚