Thankfulness: Attitude
Psalms 100
Our attitude
should be one of thanksgiving to God with humbleness.
Without him
we would not exist. We should sing
praises to him
and always
be thankful to him.
We have already looked at many
reasons we have to give thanks. God has
blessed us richly with the good things in life.
However, our times of goodness and bounty are not the only times we
should give thanks, even though that is our inclination. It can be hard to keep a thankful attitude
during less than ideal circumstances, but we were given an example of such an
attitude in Daniel. Knowing that
difficult times were upon him due to his faithful worship to God, he did not
fail to still give thanks to God, even when doing so put his life in peril
(Daniel 6:10).
I am hopeful that listing our
blessings on a constant, daily basis has helped each of us to see that even in
the midst of a bad day or things going wrong, we always have something to give
thanks for. Not only that, but God has
repeatedly demonstrated that he looks after us, and if we give him our lives,
he will bless us even in the bad times (Deut. 23:5). How often have you had a good outcome from a
bad circumstance? It says quite clearly
in Romans 8:28 that God looks after his faithful children (Rom.8:31-32).
So it is that we should give thanks
in all circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant (1 Thess. 5:16-18). It is God’s will that we keep an attitude of
thanksgiving. Perhaps you are wondering,
as I did, why thankfulness is so important.
Let’s read Ephesians 5:1-8. Part
of what defines us as Christians is our thankfulness instead of
sin. The two cannot properly
coexist. If someone is truly thankful to
God for their blessings, then she would do her best to please that same God,
thus avoiding sin. We should have the
attitude expressed in Col 2:6-7. By
“abounding in thanksgiving,” we guard ourselves from the sin described in
Ephesians 5.
We are told to “continue steadfastly
in prayer, being watchful in it with all thanksgiving” in Colossians 4:2. What should we be keeping in our prayers of
thankfulness? Besides those things we
have already discussed, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 tells us to include all people and all
governments and leaders. I notice that
it doesn’t specify just those in office whom we approve of. It says we are to pray for and about them all,
so that we might have hope of being allowed to live godly lives as the Lord
wishes. During the time when 1 Timothy
was written, Nero was heavily persecuting and killing Christians. Yet Paul urged that supplication and
thanks be made concerning the government!
This is a hard but important lesson for us, even though we ourselves are
not being so persecuted. It is easy to
fall into the habit of bad-mouthing those in political office, but this verse
indicates that such an attitude is not pleasing to God.
Having this unceasing attitude of
thankfulness is a challenge. We can find
the strength and courage to pursue this godly attitude by working
together. Both Ephesians 5:19-20 and
Colossians 3:15-17 tell us to rely on each other for the support and help that
we all need, so that we are indeed “giving thanks always and for everything to
God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is why I am so encouraged and uplifted
to have had all of you participate with me in studying what the Bible says
about thanksgiving. Thank you for
helping to encourage me to become more thankful in my life, and I hope that all
of you also have benefited from our studies together.
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