We tend to think of thankfulness as a biproduct of something else. We receive a gift, we get an encouraging diagnosis, we receive a job offer, and so we are thankful. It wells up within us as a natural response to good circumstances. It is less a choice and more a reaction. So, when we talk about wanting to “be more thankful” or to “grow in gratitude,” what we are really describing is a greater awareness of the good that exists in and around our lives. The more we notice, the more thankfully we react. That’s generally the way we define thankfulness in American culture. In this article, I want to talk about a more biblical view of thankfulness.
Every November, America celebrates Thanksgiving, a holiday devoted to gratitude. (Either that or a holiday devoted to eating grotesque amounts of food and falling into a tryptophan-induced stupor as football plays in the background). If you listen closely, you’ll hear talk of thankfulness and gratitude all around, generally expressed as a sort of positive vibe and attitude—a generic perspective of goodness. Thankfulness in America is more a mood than anything else.
When we treat gratitude as a reaction, a vibe, or a mood, we miss a defining characteristic of it that makes it virtuous, that of being thankful to. If our thankfulness doesn’t have a recipient—that is, if we don’t acknowledge the Giver—it is just a vapor of positive thought. This isn’t at all how the Bible depicts thankfulness.
Not only does the Bible clearly show that all good gifts come from God, (James 1:17)—thus he is the ultimate recipient of our gratitude—it also commands gratitude. (Isaiah 12:4, Psalm 95:2) And if it is commanded, that means it can, and must, be done willfully. Gratitude is a choice, a God-honoring choice. We see this reflected in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
I write all this to put thankfulness in a new and more substantial position for us. It is virtuous and morally good. It is obedient to God. It is a choice we make in response to—and acknowledgement of—God. And moreover, thankfulness is a powerful weapon for followers of Jesus.
1. Thankfulness Undermines and Disempowers Anxiety
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:4-7
In the face of anxiety, how are we to respond? We are to go to God with requests and with thanksgiving! When we acknowledge and dwell on his grace, his power, his many kindnesses to us, and his profound work on our behalf in Christ it overpowers worry and anxiety with peace. Often, we take requests to God with trepidation. We approach him as if he might not be able to help and as if we don’t have a multitude of evidence that he is sovereign and good and loving. To approach God with requests and thanksgiving is to come to him with great need and even greater awareness of who he is and what he has done. Then his peace will smother the worry.
2. Thankfulness Crumbles Idols
Tim Keller wrote “…anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living”is an idol. Idolatry is easy when we are generically, vaguely thankful. It is impossible when we focus our attention on the giver. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17) Instead of created things becoming objects of worship, they become reminders of God’s creativity and kindness and generosity. So, they move us to proper worship.
3. Thankfulness Kills Sexual Temptation
“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
Ephesians 5:3-4
After listing this series of sexually inappropriate behaviors and attitudes, you would think Paul would say, “instead let there be purity” or “instead let there be integrity.” But he says, “instead let there be thanksgiving.” Why? Because thankfulness means that we have things rightly ordered in our minds and hearts. God is in the highest place, and we are recipients of his goodness. When we are intentionally thankful, we have our minds and hearts set on him with joy. And that means that the perversions of thought and desire that lead to sexual sin are submitted to God. In the same way that we can’t worship creation if we are thankful to God for it, neither can we lust after it.
This truly is remarkable. Thankfulness isn’t just a positive response to good circumstances. It isn’t just an uplifting outlook on life. It is a spiritual discipline. It is an act of worship. It is a weapon against sin. It is a conduit for joy and peace. All because true Christian thankfulness is an active, purposeful acknowledgement of God the creator and giver.
Originally posted at The Focused Pastor
