The Importance of Thankfulness I

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  And above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Colossians 3:12-15

As we come into this season of Thanksgiving, I think it is important to remember why we should be thankful and just how important it is to be thankful.  Beyond the family and friends and turkey and stuffing, we really do need to be thankful, both at this time of year and all of the other times as well.

This passage is about what we, as Christians, are supposed to “put on.”  Just as we would put on a change of clothes in the morning, there are certain things that the Lord would have us “put on.”  Among the things mentioned here are mercy, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, charity, peace, and thankfulness.  Thankfulness is mentioned toward the end of the passage, at the end of verse 15: “…and be ye thankful.”

“…and be ye thankful.”  It’s just a short and simple statement, but a powerful one.  It’s a very simple command.  Be ye thankful.  To borrow a phrase from Nike, “just do it.”  A Christian is commanded to “be ye thankful.”  We can look at other simple commands such as “thou shalt not kill” and have no problem understanding and obeying it.  But sometimes “be ye thankful” gives us problems.

Are we really thankful today?  Are we obeying this very simple command?  It couldn’t be worded any simpler.  Are we thankful?

A Day of Thanksgiving

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Colossians 3:15

The idea of setting aside a particular day for giving thanks has been around for a long time, and it’s been around for a long time for a good reason.  As we know, we should be thankful all of the time about every thing.  But it’s also nice to take a day to think about the things for which we are thankful.  That is what we do today.  So, as you spend time with loved ones, probably eating too much and enjoying good fellowship, spend some time thinking about the One who has made all of that possible.  We should spend a little time today thanking the Lord for giving us so much and doing so much for us.  What am I thankful for?  A short list:

My salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My family and friends.

A perfect Bible.

My dogs (chocolate labs – Duke and Brutus)

The mercy and grace of God.

Food and football.

Did I mention my salvation?  If I were to lose everything else on the list, I can still thank God for saving my sinful soul.  What a wonderful Saviour and what a wonderful object of thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Giving Thanks In Everything You Do

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Colossians 3:16-17

Continuing on with our thoughts about thankfulness in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday this week, we will today look at these verses in Colossians.

Like we saw yesterday in Ephesians 5:19-20, and like we see in several other places in the Bible, thanksgiving and thankfulness are connected with singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  A thankful person has a song in their hearts.  A thankful person is almost always “bubbling over” with thanks and praise to the Lord for all that He has done for them.  There is no room in the heart of a thankful person for griping and complaining.  If you have ever noticed, it is pretty much impossible to go around singing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” with a rotten, unthankful, bitter spirit.  It just doesn’t work.  You can have one or the other, but never both.

Another thing that I noticed about these two passages is the fact that both dealt with the heart and what is going on inside of us.  The passage in Ephesians dealt with being filled with the Spirit.  (Ephesians 5:18)  This passage deals with letting the “word of Christ dwell in you richly.”  When you think about it, thankfulness is a heart issue.  Of course, according to Proverbs 4:23, everything is a heart issue.

What is in our heart eventually comes out in our words and actions.  If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit are going to come out in our lives.  We are going to be thankful.  When the “word of Christ” is dwelling in us, we are going to be thankful. 

Let us keep our hearts tuned into Him and let us allow Him to keep us thankful!