MORE ON THANKFULNESS

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What shall we do in giving thanks to our Lord?

Note what David said in these two Psalms, that he would do. We can at least do the same.

  1. Thank Jesus for what He has accomplished for us – our salvation, recognising how costly it was for Jesus and our Heavenly Father.
  2. Devote ourselves and all we have to His service. 
  3. Doing good is sacrifice, with which God is well pleased; and this must accompany giving thanks in His name.
  4. We are not ashamed to be in God’s service and to invite others to join us. Such are true saints of God, in whose lives and deaths He will be glorified.

“What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” Psalms 116:12-14

“I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!” Psalms 116:17-18

“I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence.” Psalms 140:12-13

What about the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. Only one returned to give thanks to Jesus, and He was a Samaritan. Not one of the Jews, members of Jesus’ chosen nation, returned to give thanks.

“And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Do we thank God constantly for His Word as Paul and His fellow believers did? Sadly, His church is not even upholding the inerrancy of God’s Word let alone thanking Him for it.

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.“ 1 Thessalonians 2:13

GOD LOVES HIS CHILDREN TO BE THANKFUL

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Our thankfulness glorifies God and makes Him joyful:

“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” Psalms 50:23

Puritan John Boys echoed the sentiment of the psalmist: “As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver.” But God isn’t the only one affected when we give thanks.

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”

In Choosing Gratitude, Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, “True gratitude, Christian gratitude, doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it has an Object.”

Psalm 138:1-8 How to Have a Thankful Heart

Check out Psalm 138:1-8 for reasons why you should have a thankful heart

God gives us hundreds of reasons to be grateful every hour— ask Him to make you aware of His gracious provisions surrounding you. The Holy Spirit will oblige. He is your counsellor and teacher. Developing the habit and discipline of gratitude results in greater praise to God and greater joy for ourselves.

When life’s tough, we can be grateful that God is with us in our suffering, that He’s using it for our good, and that He promises to end it once and for all.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-21

Randy Alcorn reported on this study in his article on Thankfulness on the Patheos blog: Psychologists asked undergraduates to complete a survey that included a happiness scale and measures of thankfulness. Over six weeks, the participants wrote down, once a week, five things they were grateful for. This practice had a dramatic effect on their happiness score. The study concluded, “Students who regularly expressed gratitude showed increases in well-being throughout the study.”

Likewise secular books on happiness document gratitude’s role in making people happier. But cultivating gratitude proves difficult for people whose worldview leaves them with nobody to thank! Yes, they can thank someone for loaning them a car or being their teacher. But whom can they thank for sunshine, air to breathe, the capacity to work, and enjoy pleasure? People who don’t believe that a sovereign God is at work through the kindness of others must thank their “lucky stars,” random circumstances, or—at best—other people. Since people are small when compared to God, the object of their gratitude is small, shrinking their capacity for happiness.

God’s common grace offers unbelievers a degree of happiness that’s greatly enhanced through thankfulness. As Christ-followers, however, we find gratitude multiplied when we return it to God, the ultimate and primary source of all goodness.

I suggest you keep a Holy Spirit journal (HSJ) as He is your counsellor, teacher, and comforter. He produces the fruit of the Spirit in your life (Galatians 5:22, all nine) and also provides the spiritual gifts for ministry (1 Corinthians 12:4-11, all nine). You might also want to keep a section of the HSJ to record daily, God’s evident goodness around you. You’ll find that in time, you’ll see more and more gifts from Him—not because there are more, but because you’re finally seeing what has been there all along.

God, we know from Biblical prophecies that Jesus second coming to earth, this time to restore righteousness is not too far distant but may we not wait until we see you, Lord Jesus, for our every breath to be filled with gratitude for your saving work on The Cross, the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives along with every other gift you made it possible for the Father to provide. May our hearts overflow with gratitude each day!

THOUGHTS ON BEING A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST

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DEEP GRATITUDE

“On the way to Jerusalem he (Jesus) was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:11-19

The only thing we can ever offer to God is Deep Gratitude for HIS amazing, undeserved Grace.  In the above account, it is interesting that nine of the healed lepers (who presumably were Jews) lacked such gratitude because they did not see themselves as being in need of such grace, while the Samaritan ‘foreigner’ did!

A salutary warning to those of us, like me at 84 years of age, who have benefitted over many years from the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit: we can be too prone to take for granted our spiritual growth, and to think this growth is somehow our contribution to God, rather than His gift to us for which I am eternally grateful.  I like the verse of the old hymn about the Holy Spirit’s work in us: “And every virtue we possess and every victory won, and every thought of holiness, are His alone.” 

THOUGHTS ON MINISTRY

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.  Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 4:1-3

What great comfort and instruction these verses provide for us as we labour in the work of the Gospel.  Once we have experienced for ourselves the rich and comprehensive blessing of God’s saving grace, we have an overwhelming desire to share this blessing with others, especially those close to us and those who are really struggling with the burdens of our troubled world.

The Apostle Paul reminds us of some very important truths to keep in mind as we struggle.

Firstly, our own salvation, and our taking hold of it, was never a result of our work/efforts, but is only ever brought about by God’s Sovereign Mercy!

Secondly, and because of this, we must never lose heart – If God managed to soften my proud, rebellious, self-centred, self-sufficient heart, he can do the same for anyone else as well!

Thirdly, we must never resort to using the world’s tactics/weapons, or to ‘watering down’ the claims of the Gospel, just to ‘get people in’.  As he wrote to the Christians in Corinth: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Fourthly, although it might be twisted and deadened by SIN, Man-made-in-the-image-of-God still has a conscience that the Holy Spirit can use to convict of “sin and righteousness and Judgement” (John 16:8)!

Fifthly, it is not our job to change people – nor is it ever within our skill-set!  Only God can remove the ‘veil’ that prevents people from coming to repentance-and-faith and thus dissociating themselves from all those who are ’perishing’.  Our only job is to proclaim the Good News, Faithfully, Persistently and Prayerfully, whenever and wherever we can, and then to leave the outcome in God’s hands (1 Corinthians 3:6)!