As creatures, we are designed to be thankful. It should be our native tongue because thanksgiving is the natural response of a grateful heart to God for His manifold blessings to us. It is not something we should do occasionally, but it should be a characteristic of our lives, an attribute we are known for as a people.
Romans chapter one describes the downhill slide of the unrighteous. They have willfully suppressed what God has plainly displayed to them (even His eternal power and Godhead) and so they are without excuse. “They did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened”(vs. 21). In the remaining verses of chapter one we see that “God gave them up” and “God gave them over to a debased mind.” In other words, God does not withhold His righteous judgment until after they have died. The unrighteous begin to experience the wrath of God while they live, for what else is God’s wrath if it isn’t being given up and given over? We Christians ought to recognize God’s judgment when we see it, and this chapter of Romans gives us a vivid description.
But my point in bringing all this up is not to discuss God’s righteous judgment, but rather to point out how central thanksgiving is to the Christian life. God hates ingratitude, as seen above. When we refuse to be thankful, we are acting like those who “suppress the truth” about God, and our gracious God does not overlook such behavior. When we render thanksgiving and praise to our generous God, we are acting in accordance to our redeemed natures, we are doing what creatures should do. The atheist and the agnostic have no one to thank but themselves. Evolution claims that we created ourselves. The unbelieving world has been given over to uncleanness, vile passions, and a debased mind (verses 24, 26, 28).
But the Christian is to overflow in thankfulness. “But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:18-21). Notice the words always and all things. We are to be giving thanks constantly and for everything.
Now some want to rush to point out things that might be hard to give thanks for. (“Surely God doesn’t want me to thank Him for this or for that.”) This is a bit of a trick to try to change the subject. (“Let’s not talk about all the ways I should be obeying now but I am not obeying….let’s talk about the difficult theological issues involved here….”)
It would be far better to rush to all the many things for which it is easy to give thanks, things that we have neglected to thank God for and blessings we have overlooked. And as we learn to give thanks for all these things, we will have a different perspective on those things that seem hard.
We are to enter into His gates with thanksgiving (Ps. 100:4), we are to pray with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2), we are to come before His presence with thanksgiving (Ps. 95:2). We are to offer to God thanksgiving (Ps. 50:14). And this just scratches the surface.
What hinders thanksgiving? Unconfessed sin, disobedience, discontent, laziness, bitterness, pride. What restores a thankful heart? Confessing our sins to God and to those we have wronged. Receiving forgiveness, being put right with our Creator so that we can speak our native tongue of thanksgiving.
As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, let’s render all thanks to God and cultivate thanksgiving as a spiritual discipline. Then we can become fluent in the language we were designed to speak. And that pleases and glorifies our very good and gracious God, which in turn makes the biggest turkey and the most beautiful table setting a fitting offering of praise and thanksgiving to God.
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A wonderful meditation for this morning. Thank you!
Especially that last paragraph.
Bless you.
Me Tarzan.
While thanksgiving may be our native tongue, the effect of the fall is that we’ve all been raised by wolves and have to relearn it. I haven’t been promoted out of remedial kindergarten yet.
And if I might add something to your penultimate paragraph, not only seeking forgiveness, but also seeking to forgive others helps restore a thankful heart. You covered that in “bitterness,” of course, which is in turn included in the sins we need to confess, but I thought it was worth pointing out on its own. 🙂
Thanks for posting this wonderful reminder. As we prepare our homes and tables for a feast, may we also prepare our hearts. Blessings.
Lovely to read, lovely reminder.
I hold great value to your perspective and wisdom.
Perhaps sharing this could help somebody, so here it goes (though I ended up, as usual, writing much more than planned) . . .
One of the most notable things that helps me be thankful is thinking over specific interactions between people and God in the Bible. I look at the incidents and see God’s works (which in some ways can be confidently understood in ways our experiences, lacking an infalliable written record to accompany them, cannot). And from thinking over these specific works–causing Joseph to be enslaved, opening and closing a womb, prospering Jacob’s sheep–my mind draws to the greatest context of all that happens: God’s Being that His actions stem from. And there I find, of course, the deepest reasons for thankfulness, as well as the only unshakable foundation. And I find my mind going to the specific promises that let Christians know they have a share in this God, and in His ends for the world (such as those expressed in Romans 8 and 9). Then I see that when all turns to sand, I can be thankful because I see the dust is being cleared to show the diamond.
Here’s an example (which I am a bit shy to use it since it shows so much my ‘wimpy-ness’): I used to have a job where, because of medical problems, I was in pain day after day. From Biblical precepts I knew this was not a job I could quit in my circumstances. _But oh, if I could just _persuade_ people to let me leave in a Biblical manner [not exactly the epitome of submission here!]. . . Yet what would I do that didn’t hurt that would allow me to pay off college?. . . What damage is taking prescription pain meds from age twenty til who-knows-when (70-something?) going to do to my stomach?. . . am I going to be able to raise a family if I hurt this much day-to-day and/or worsen physically?. . ._ Sometimes I’d worry a lot like this. And I found great comfort in specific stories like those mentioned above. God sold Joseph into slavery; God was working for a far greater goal than I am currently thinking of; God is doing the same work now. . .; the greatest God can give is Himself, and He gives it largely through suffering. . . then I would reflect more on God… Then last I found myself thankful: thankful for the pain, the trials that made me contemplate and trust, the world being designed for a work of redemption to be made through it.
As an aside, I’ve found Genesis wonderful in helping get one’s mind increasinly used to properly placing thoughts in their context to God! He creates (time, matter, man, each individual man); He differentiates; He measures Good; He provides all man needs (e.g., seeds that will produce more food); He causes the rain to water and to flood; He judges mankind and does so by His knowledge (of everything); He knows everything by knowing Himself; He causes barrenness and fertility; He determines birth order; He controls sheep reproduction; He creates languages; He sells into slavery for HIS purposes; our relationships reflect HIS Trinitarian nature; we are made to show HIS image….
I wish I had been a bit more clear about something. . . I wasn’t trying to stress much the thoughts above like God’s purposes, which seems needless to point out. But I want to stress that remembering _specific events_ (and memorizing passages like that of God showing *HE* caused Joseph to be enslaved) has been a wondrous help.
And on an interesting note, Reformedblogs.com doesn’t recognize “Trinitarian” as a word..