Introduction
Review setting: Paul says they are doing well, but he exhorts them to
“excel still more.” At the end of his letter, Paul zeroes in
on certain hallmark features of Christian spirituality. We can conceive
of these as HORIZONTAL—having to do with our relationships with other
people (see 5:14), and VERTICAL—having to do with our relationship
with God. Read 5:16-18. Here is a foundational aspect of VERTICAL Christian
spirituality)—gratitude toward God (“rejoice” and “give
thanks” are synonyms here).
SIDEBAR: Gratitude is not a feature of spirituality in most other religions,
because God is not personal or sovereign, or because God is capricious
rather than good.
In fairness, we must acknowledge that Paul is engaging in hyperbole.
He doesn't literally mean that we should do this absolutely every second,
or we couldn't sleep, drive in heavy traffic, or do anything that demands
our full attention.
But hyperbole is purposeful exaggeration to emphasize a point.
And the point here is obviously that our personal communication with
God should be characterized by gratitude in much the same way that we
cough when we have a nagging cough: in every situation all through the
day.
So here is a searching spiritual question: Are you becoming a more rejoicing,
grateful, thankful person?
Would the people with whom you rub shoulders at work, etc. say this?
What would your spouse, children, and close friends say? Or would they
say that you are generally negative, gloomy, complaining?
Would you say that your prayer life is laced with a rich theme of praise
and gratitude? Or is it dominated by whining and complaining?
If you could record and replay the last month's thoughts of praise
and gratitude versus envy, self-pity and complaining, what would the
ratio be?
This is something that characterized Paul (in spite of his circumstances),
and something he emphasized in all of his letters (Philippians 3:1;
4:4; Colossians 3:15-17).
Why is it so important?
Not because God needs it. God is not like the parent who is
insecure and needs to be constantly praised and thanked by his children
so he can feel validated. God needs nothing; he is complete in “himselves.”
God is not like the parent who needs to be praised and thanked before
he will give us what we want. Unlike pagan deities who must be flattered
or manipulated, God already delights to give his children good gifts,
and he gives what he knows we need, not what we demand.
But because we need it to be spiritually healthy. God is pleased
when we rejoice in him and thank him—not because it validates him,
but because it shows that we are becoming more spiritually healthy and
mature. This is why I'm glad when my children thank me . . .
The New Testament teaches that gratitude is related to spiritual health
in two different ways. We'll use a medical model to explore this . . .
Gratitude
is a “thermometer” that indicates the state of your spiritual
health
A thermometer is a tool that tells you whether you have one of the symptoms
of physical illness (fever). It is not a medicine. You don't put the thermometer
in the freezer and then stick it into your mouth to break your fever.
You put it in your mouth and it tells you if you have a fever.
In the same way, the presence or absence of gratitude in your dealings
with God is one of the most reliable indicators of your spiritual health.
This is because it (along with serving love) is the normal and natural
result of personally understanding and receiving God's grace. Grace
means charity—a gift to the undeserving.
Imagine a convicted criminal (justly) imprisoned for life. The governor
pardons him at great personal cost, adopts him, brings him to live in
his home, and gives him an esteemed role in his administration. Even
years later, this man would have gratitude in his heart for the governor.
If you think this story is unrealistic, the Bible says God has done
something even more outrageous. This is only a faint picture of the
grace God extends to each one of us. We have grievously rebelled against
God and broken his law, the just penalty of which is death. Yet Christ
came to freely stand in our place, to pay the penalty of death that
he didn't deserve—so he could give us what we didn't deserve: GRACE
(God's Riches At Christ's Expense). God's grace is marvelously multi-faceted,
including complete forgiveness, eternal life, adoption into his family,
his Spirit to indwell us, insight into his plan for humanity and a significant
role in that plan, sovereign involvement for good in every situation,
etc.
When God's grace breaks in upon you, when you realize the contrast
between what you deserve from God and what he is giving you, the only
sane response is rejoicing gratitude. You see this theme all through
the Bible: Luke 7:47; 1 Peter 1:3-6, 8; Romans 12:1;
Colossians 1:6; 2:7.
What does it mean if you lack gratitude for God's grace? It depends.
If this is totally foreign to you, it probably means that you are not
yet a child of God. You need to receive God's grace by acknowledging
your revolt and guilt, thanking him for his gracious gift of the cross,
and asking him for salvation through Christ (John 1:12). Why not
receive Christ today?
If you know that you have received Christ and have experienced this
gratitude in the past, but not lately, it may mean that you are living
“under the law” (ACCEPTANCE BASED ON PERFORMANCE; SERVE BY
OWN POWER). Paul says this will take away our “sense of blessing”
(explain Gal. 4:15,21). If this is where you are at, read Galatians,
Waking In Victory, Sit,
Walk, Stand, Normal Christian Life, etc.
But this may not be enough; there may be something else you need to do.
You may need to begin choosing by faith to rejoice and express thanks
to God. This is because gratitude is not only a thermometer that indicates
the state of your spiritual health; it is also a medicine that promotes
your spiritual health.
Gratitude is a “medicine” that promotes
your spiritual health
Gratitude is not a feeling that dictates your choices; it is a choice
that affects your feelings. This is what Paul is emphasizing in this
passage. Most of the New Testament passages on gratitude are imperatives,
addressed to our volition rather than to our emotions. He is not prescribing
for us how we must feel; he is calling on us to choose to rejoice and
thank God on the basis of what is true--regardless of how happy or thankful
we may feel.
This is a key insight into biblical spirituality. It involves our feelings
and experiences, but it is not rooted in them, because they are fallen
and broken and unreliable. It is rooted in God's truth and our choice
to express faith in the truth, often in spite of what we feel.
This is why the notion that it is unspiritual to thank God unless you
feel grateful is false. Choosing by faith to thank God in spite of intense
feelings of depression, disappointment, anxiety, etc. is deeply spiritual.
This is why if you wait until you feel grateful to thank God, you
will feel less and less grateful. But if you choose to thank God regardless
of how you feel, you will feel more grateful more often.
It is in this sense that gratitude is a key step of faith (along with
serving love) that unleashes God's blessing into your experience.
(“Grateful servants are happy people.”) The New Testament teaches
this in many places:
It is the step of faith that unleashes God's peace to guard your heart
and mind (see Philippians 4:6-7 & EXPLAIN WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE).
It is the step of faith that unleashes God's power to deliver you and
impact others through you (narrate Acts 16:25ff.).
It is the step of faith that increases your capacity to experience
the love that God is always pouring into your life. In his talk "Transformational
Wholeness," Erwin McManus describes a situation I have seen often.
He is listening to a young man complain about how miserable he is because
no one loves him. Next to him stand his parents, whose anguished faces
express how much they have loved their son. What is his problem—that
he is not loved? No, it is that he is so ungrateful that he can't experience
the love that his parents are constantly giving him. And he will stay
unable to experience it until he begins to express gratitude in his
present situation. So it is for us in our relationships with God . .
.
I think this is what God has his finger on with many of us (I KNOW HE
HAS WITH ME!). We understand about grace, but we're in a state of spiritual
stagnancy because we aren't cultivating a grateful posture toward God
. . .
Cultivating a grateful attitude
It is in this sense that gratitude is a discipline, a habit that must
be consciously developed and deliberately cultivated—which is what
Paul is calling for in this passage. This is an area God has been pounding
away on in my life for the last couple of years. How can we do this? There
is no mechanistic formula, but neither is it merely asking God to do this
for you and then sitting back passively. There are practical steps we
can take in cooperation with God's work in this area. May the Holy Spirit
arrest your attention on the ones he wants you to work on . . .
Prioritize thanksgiving in your prayer life (Colossians 4:2) vs.
letting it get crowded out by petition, let alone whining and complaining.
Always include it, and sometimes focus on it alone. “What should
I thank God for?” I suggest two areas:
- Focus on all aspects of your salvation and personalize it:
adoption & sovereign care, forgiveness, revelation & role, inheritance,
Holy Spirit, freedom from sin's and Satan's authority, Body-life, etc.
- Take note of “small” blessings (nature; health; acts
of kindness) and actually express thanks to God for them vs. taking
them for granted, acknowledging without expressing thanks (material
affluence promotes ingratitude!).
Ask God to sensitize you to internal complaint (ME WITH AUDIBLE
GRUMBLING ABOUT BILLS, MISTREATMENT, etc.). When you realize it, promptly
turn away from it and replace it with thanks in the related areas.
Utilize spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:18, 20). They often have
power lift my eyes and heart when nothing else does.
Thank people who bless you in even the smallest ways. It will
complete your enjoyment of the blessing, and it will increase your capacity
to thank God.
Reflect on and serve those less fortunate than you. This will
remind you of how gracious God has been to you, how far he has brought
you, and how much he has blessed you—which will in turn motivate
you to be grateful to God.
Hang around grateful people. They will convict you of your ingratitude
and inspire you to become like them. Let's listen to K. J. Swearingen
for an example of what I'm talking about (VIDEO) . . .
Footnotes
Copyright 2000 Gary DeLashmutt