The Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching. Many of you will spend time cooking special things for Thanksgiving dinner. Many of you no doubt will have turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and maybe some veggies if you have any room left on your plate – not to mention your stomach! Now many of those things you will eat have key ingredients. Without those key ingredients, the food wouldn’t look or taste as good.
Consider the scenario of running out of sugar. Imagine this scene as it was some 30 years ago – the stores all closed on Thanksgiving and Sundays! So, without sweetener, the pies are tart, the sweet potatoes are not very sweet, and that special cranberry dish makes everyone’s lips pucker. The missing ingredient is the cause for a clear change in the end product. The food is not as enjoyable, and people do not want seconds. The missing ingredient kind of makes everyone a little grumpy!
When thankfulness is missing there is a clear deficiency; however, when thankfulness is present there is a clear and noticeable difference. That “difference” is a clearer reflection of our Savior Jesus Christ!
People enjoy being around thankful people! They come for “seconds” of their conversation and time spent with them. They are sought after because such a true consistent spirit of thankfulness is found less and less in today’s culture, and more and more of the murmuring, complaining, manipulating, and intimidating has become prevalent in the modern-day church! We must not miss the vital ingredient of a thankful heart to God!
How is a Thankful heart revealed?
Thankfulness is described throughout scripture. Ephesians 1 speaks of several revelations about thankfulness.
1. Unceasing – Eph. 1:3-6
These verses are part of one long sentence from verse 3 to verse 14 in the Greek text! The apostle Paul speaks of what we have “in Christ” in the opening of the letter to the church in Ephesus. Paul gives praise and thanksgiving for:
Blessings from God (v. 3)
Being Chosen of God (v. 4a)
Being like God(v. 4b)
Being Adopted by God (v. 5)
Being Made Acceptable before God (v. 6)
I can remember coming home from a special school program with my parents and couldn’t stop talking about all that happened.
“Mom, did you see me when I said my lines?”
“Dad, what did you think about the third song the choir sang? Wasn’t it great?”
I thought the program was the best it could have been! I couldn’t wait to tell someone! I couldn’t wait to go back to school the next day and talk to my friends about the program! I couldn’t get over what I just went through!
Paul couldn’t get over the glory of what He had in Christ!
He recognized that such thanksgiving and praise would continue all his days on earth and then for all eternity in glory! How often our praise and thankful heart are just for a moment! How often our praise and thankful hearts to God are the occasional manifestation and the everyday expression is quite different. How do those who know you best characterize your expressions?
You may say, “I have had a rough year,” or “a rough couple of years.” “I have been sick,” “I have been in much emotional and physical pain.”
If that is the case for you, I am truly sorry. Some of life’s circumstances can be so very hard! However, regardless of the situations you find yourself in, how do those who know you best characterize your heart (who you truly are)?
Paul’s life circumstances were miserable (humanly speaking)! Paul was in prison, beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, mobs of angry people ran him out of towns, and even a poisonous snake bit him—but he glories in what he has in Christ! What do you glory in?
2. Spontaneous – Phil 1:3
The church at Philippi had sent two offerings to Paul before this letter was written (4:16). This letter was written while Paul was in prison, and when the Philippian church heard Paul was in prison, they sent Epaphroditus with another gift. When God brought the church of Philippi to Paul’s mind, he would thank God for them!
When I was still at home my parents worked very hard at making sure they spent the same amount of money on each child as they did on the others at Christmas time. Sometimes we would hear them say that some of you got more presents; however, some of you got bigger presents – therefore you got less in number – but everyone has the same amount in the end.
Why did they do that? Because they knew that the first reaction of human nature when one is still opening presents, and you are done is NOT -- “I’m so thankful for what I have been given.” No, the first response is – “how come he got more than I did?!”
Paul did not say, “Why didn’t you send more money?” Paul was genuinely thankful for what he received, and didn’t dwell on what was missing.
Such a thankful heart was his, so genuine of a thankful heart did he have that it was spontaneous! The first thing that came to his mind when thinking of these people was thanking God for them!
Are you thankful for what you have received?
Or do you center your focus on what you have not received?
When others think of you, are they moved to thankfulness?
“Unceasing” & “Spontaneous”
These are words that too often don’t describe our thankfulness! Think about thankfulness today…it is the revelation of your heart!