Hi Ladies,
Happy last day of October! I love this season… the crisp, sunny days, the colors, the smells, the spices… and especially Thanksgiving. It’s been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember.
Having a special time set aside to express gratitude to the Lord is really important. But just as it would be unthinkable to only express love to your spouse on Valentine’s Day, we would be wrong to reserve this gratitude for only a small fraction of our lifespan.
We know God’s multiple commands to give thanks, and we’ve meditated on them here before. But because we are prone to forget (yes, we are more like the Israelites than we like to admit), and because we’ve had good practice this past month showing gratitude and appreciation for our elders, I thought it would be helpful to take the month of November to keep things a little more practical.
“Give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20).
Such an all-encompassing statement can be hard to practice. Always? For everything? It feels too big, too laborious... perhaps even impossible. But Scripture doesn’t stay in the skies on this command. So, I’d like us to ground our focus this month and seek to “put feet to” walking in obedience to specific categories within this overarching command.
This week, I’d like us to see what the Bible says about giving thanks specifically for our family in Christ, and then seek to practice it with one another. Paul models this well, expressing gratitude in nearly all of his letters. We won't look at every passage here (though I encourage you to look them up yourself!), but see if you can observe a pattern in his expressions:
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I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world (Rom. 1:8).
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I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus (I Cor. 1:4).
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I thank my God in all my remembrance of you... because of your partnership in the gospel (Phil. 1:3, 5).
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I thank God... as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day....I am reminded of your sincere faith (2 Tim. 1:3, 5).
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I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints (Philemon 4-5).
What patterns stand out to you?
Here’s what stands out to me:
WHAT: Paul takes time (and ink) to express thankfulness! I imagine that Paul was driven - an efficient, productive, no-nonsense kind of guy. He could have gotten right to teaching or correcting. But all of the examples above come from the opening verses of the letters. He begins here. Gratitude.
WHO: Who gets the thanks? Look again.
In each example, Paul is thanking God for them, and verbalizing/writing it to them. It is two-fold: vertical and horizontal.
WHY: Again, in all the examples above, Paul gives a reason. He doesn’t compliment personality, skill, talent, or achievement.
Instead, he highlights evidences of God’s grace in their lives: faith, grace, partnership in the gospel, love, etc.
So, what are some practical ways we can imitate Paul this week? I’ll list several, but you can have fun coming up with your own!
- If you’re prone to keep your gratitude vertical, choose at least 3 people and verbally express your thankfulness for (and to) them
- If you’re prone to keep your gratitude horizontal, pause and thank God for these people before you express it to them
- In your expressions of gratitude, involve the Lord: “I thank the Lord for you!” Or “I see God’s grace in you as you…”
- Ask the Lord to bring someone to mind who needs encouragement this week. Choose to express gratitude to someone who might not expect it from you, or someone whom you have to go out of your way or comfort zone to do so.
- Challenge yourself to pick one person each day to express gratitude for AND to, either in person or in writing
- Don’t forget your physical family who is also your spiritual family! Sometimes they can be neglected in our expressions of gratitude. Let’s not be guilty of that. 🙂
Let’s pray for each other this week, that we would “put feet to” this command, for God’s glory and the building up of our church family. ❤️🙏🏼
