In your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks. Ephesians 5:19-20
He never knew when the door would swing open leading to his execution. Falsely accused. Beaten. Disserted by so called friends. Separated from those closest to him. His bed a cold stone floor. Each hour passed confined in iron chains with the shackles cutting into his wrist and ankles. If anyone had reason to be discontent and dissatisfied it would have been the Apostle Paul. Most would have viewed any complaint from him as more than justifiable. But contrary to what we would call a normal response to dire circumstances, Paul chose thankfulness.
Once while imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote,
“Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:19-20).
Always giving thanks to God in everything. Can you imagine such resolve? Thankful in everything. Paul did not say, “be thankful when it fits.” He said, “be thankful in all things.” Thankfulness. Regardless of the circumstance.
So today, we are called to choose thankfulness. Paul’s words, “make music in your heart”, represents intentionally choosing a thankful heart. This represents one of the most distinctive marks of the Christian life. We cannot allow the spirit of ingratitude to harden our hearts and to interrupt our love for God and for others. Nothing makes the soul cold and indifferent like ingratitude. And nothing restores the joy of faith like contentment that flows from a heart of true thankfulness.
Canadian American Bible teacher and pastor, Henry A. Ironside, once concluded that “thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” Discontentment cannot survive when the heart is truly grateful, for it fades under the beautiful chorus of thankfulness. So today, allow the blessings of God to cultivate in your soul genuine thankfulness. Do not allow the dissatisfactions of this world to muzzle your voice of thankfulness. Do not live in the bondage of your disappointments. Avoid such tendencies and choose to be thankful.
To help with this, consider some tendencies that can come against a spirit of thankfulness:
- First, a plush western culture tends to promote material dissatisfaction. There seems to always be a yearning for more – an addiction to acquisition. Jesus warned, “do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth” (Matthew 6:19). Fight the urge for a growing fondness of materialism with a desire to make spiritual investments in the kingdom of God.
- Second, a desire for more tends to shadow the rich blessings that are already ours. What a difference it makes when we realize that everything we have has been given to us by God! King David proclaimed, “Wealth and honor come from you … We give you thanks and praise your glorious name … Everything comes from you” (1 Chronicles 29:12-14). Do not allow what you are missing to shadow what you have already been given.
- Third, fight the urge to verbally express complaints. You, like myself, have plenty of things over which your complaints could be justified. But like Paul, we must choose thankfulness and not complaints. When you and I verbally and openly complain, we build a false witness of the Christian life, and we establish a false sense of justification for our perpetual dissatisfaction. Now, there are many disappointments that come against us every day. And understandably, we work through such disappointments carefully with prayerful responses. (David mirrored this in many of the Psalms.). Nonetheless, disappointments cannot author our verbal and public responsiveness, nor even our internal responsiveness of harboring bitterness toward our disappointments. We must avoid a spirit of complaint.
So, a desire for more, a disregard of our present blessings, and a spirit of complaint can most certainly squelch a spirit of thankfulness. But these three dangerous tendencies are easily disarmed and defeated by one very simple step (even children practice in their prayers). Be thankful and be specific. What good is voicing thanks if you cannot be specific. So, be specific. Make a list. Or to borrow from the old hymn, “count your blessings . . . name them.” And then, clearly “see what God has done.”
Do not find yourself in the trap of an ungrateful spirit. Choose to be thankful.
Blessings.
