Attitude of Gratitude
Introduction
Jean Smith told me her story. She was in her mid-sixties. She came from Cwmbran in Wales. She had been blind for sixteen years. She had a white stick, and a guide dog named Tina. An infection had eaten away at the retinas and mirrors behind her eyes – they could not be replaced. She was in constant pain.
Jean went on a local Alpha course. They had a day away to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. During this time, the pain left. She went to church the following Sunday to thank God. The minister anointed her with oil. As she wiped the oil away she could see the communion table. God had miraculously healed Jean.
She had not seen her husband for sixteen years. She was surprised at how white his beard was! Jean had never even seen her daughter-in-law before. Her six-and-a-half-year-old grandson used to guide her around the puddles to avoid her getting her feet wet.
He said to her, ‘Who done that Gran?’
She replied, ‘Jesus made me better.’
‘I hope you said thank you, Gran.’
‘I will never stop saying thank you,’ she answered.
Yesterday we read Paul’s encouragement: ‘In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Philippians 4:6). Today we see him putting his own instructions into practice. Like Jean, Paul was also constantly giving thanks to God. He had an attitude of gratitude.
Praise is giving glory to God for who he is. Thanksgiving is giving glory to God for what he has done for us. It is the lens through which to view our entire life. Ultimately, as we see in today’s passages, the world can be divided into two categories: those who acknowledge God and give thanks to him, and those who don’t.
How do you cultivate an attitude of gratitude?
Psalm 116:12–19
12 What shall I return to the LORD
for all his goodness to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful servants.
16 Truly I am your servant, LORD;
I serve you just as my mother did;
you have freed me from my chains.
17 I will sacrifice a thank-offering to you
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will fulfil my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD –
in your midst, Jerusalem.
Commentary
Publicly offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving
It is not enough to thank God in the privacy of your own home. There is something significant about coming together and publicly thanking God ‘in the presence of all his people’ (v.14). The psalmist asks the rhetorical question, ‘What can I give back to God for the blessings he’s poured out on me?’ (v.12, MSG).
God has been so good to him. He is thankful that his future is secure, that ‘when they arrive at the gates of death God welcomes those who love him’ (v.15, MSG). He gives thanks for what God has done in the past, declaring that ‘you have freed me from my chains!’ (v.16).
Sometimes thanksgiving is easy. At other times, it is more of a sacrifice (v.17). St John of Avila (1500–1569) wrote, ‘One act of thanksgiving when things go wrong with us is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclination.’
The psalmist says, ‘I’m ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God. I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do, and I’ll do it in company with his people, in the place of worship, in God’s house, in Jerusalem, God’s city, Hallelujah!’ (vv.17–19, MSG). ‘Hallelujah’ is one of the few Hebrew words to have entered the English language – it is a call to praise the Lord.
He remembers his anguish (vv.1–4). He remembers God’s mercy (vv.5–11) and now he ends with great gratitude (vv.12–19).
Prayer
Colossians 1:3–23
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people — 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel...
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives...
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God ... 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Commentary
Continually give thanks to God
Most people, even today in secular societies, would recognise that Jesus was a great historical figure. They might rank him alongside Moses, Buddha, Socrates and other great religious leaders.
But is Jesus the unique and universal Saviour of the world? This was an issue in the first century just as much as it is now in the twenty-first century. For those in Colossi some cosmic forces were being put on an equal footing with Jesus.
In this letter, Paul, with great humility and gentleness, declares that Jesus is the unique and universal Saviour of the world. It is the God and ‘Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (v.3) who is the one who is worthy of all our worship, praise and thanksgiving.
As he prays for the Colossians, he gives thanks to God for their faith and love springing from the hope that is stored up for them in heaven (v.5).
He prays that they may, in turn, be thankful to God. He summarises the ways in which he prays for their faith to develop – asking for ‘spiritual wisdom and understanding’, fruitfulness and ‘knowledge of God’, ‘endurance and patience’. The list builds to a crescendo as each quality feeds into the next, ending on the note of ‘joyfully giving thanks to the Father’ (vv.9–12).
Paul is praying that they will give thanks to the Father for transferring them ‘from the dominion of darkness’ to the kingdom of light – for his redemption, the forgiveness of sins (vv.13–14): ‘God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating’ (vv.13–14, MSG).
The one you are to thank is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (v.15) – ‘We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen’ (v.15, MSG). Jesus is the one by whom all things were created. Everything was created by Jesus and for Jesus. It all 'started in him and finds its purpose in him’ (v.16, MSG). Jesus is the head of the church (v.18). All the fullness of God dwells in him (v.19).
Jesus has made peace with God ‘through his blood, shed on the cross’ (v.20). He has reconciled you to God (v.22a). You are now holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation (v.22b).
This is the gospel for which we give thanks: Jesus ‘was supreme in the beginning and – leading the resurrection parade – he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone... Every creature under heaven gets this same Message’ (vv.17–23, MSG).
Prayer
Jeremiah 9:3
'They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,'
declares the LORD.
Commentary
Beware of neglecting thanksgiving
Paul’s words in Romans 1 could be seen as a summary of this passage: ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him’ (Romans 1:21).
In Jeremiah, we see God’s warning of his judgment on his people. They have done evil in the eyes of the Lord (Jeremiah 7:30). They ‘just keep on going – backward!... Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear’ (8:5–6, MSG). ‘They have no shame... they don’t even know how to blush’ (v.12, MSG). ‘They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me’ (9:3). ‘In their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me’ (v.6).
‘Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbours, but in their hearts they set traps for them’ (v.8). At the root of all their sin was a failure to acknowledge God and give him thanks; they ‘refuse to know me’ (v.6, MSG).
God had given them so much, yet they failed to acknowledge him or thank him for it. Therefore, he says, ‘What I have given them will be taken away from them’ (8:13d). ‘I will take away their harvest… there will be no grapes on the vine… no figs on the tree’ (v.13).
This judgment is painful for Jeremiah: ‘Are there no healing ointments in Gilead? Isn’t there a doctor in the house? So why can’t something be done to heal and save my dear, dear people?’ (vv.21–22, MSG).
All our passages today call on us to give thanks and praise to God. One way we could respond is by drawing all our thoughts and prayers together in the words of one of the Anglican communion services:
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.
It is indeed right,
it is our duty and our joy,
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise
holy Father, heavenly King,
almighty and eternal God,
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord…
Therefore with angels and archangels,
and with all the company of heaven,
we proclaim your great and glorious name,
forever praising you and saying:
Prayer
Pippa adds
Psalm 116:15 says:
‘Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.’
With the horrific news of so many brutal killings happening. The knowledge that God knows and cares about each one of them is comforting.
Verse of the Day
Colossians 1:13–14
He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Thought for the Day
Praise is giving glory to God for who he is. Thanksgiving is giving glory to God for what he has done for us. It is the lens through which to view our entire life.
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References
Eucharistic Prayer A for use in Order One, Common Worship (Church House Publishing 2000, pp 184–5, © The Archbishops’ Council.
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.