"As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude" (Colossians 2:6-7). The way you get in is the way you go on. You have been firmly rooted (God's doing) and are now being built up and established (also God's doing). And, just as you were thankful and rejoicing and overflowing when you "got in," so should you be as you "go on." The God who saved you sanctifies you. He laid the foundation, and He's building on it. The building up and maturing process should bring you just as much joy and thankfulness as the getting saved part did. In a couple of earlier blogs I dealt with what it means to go on the way you get in and how it leads to true Sabbath rest. Overflowing with gratitude is again how we express faith in God's process of salvation and growth - by His doing, not by our works.
2 Corinthians 4:6-18 reveals a couple of more benefits of giving thanks. "For all things are for your sakes so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart...." The God who said, "Let there be light," is the God who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Col.1:12). Or, as Paul put it, "The God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." He goes on to talk about the suffering and affliction we experience as frail humans, made of clay, and about the meaning of the cross for our experiencing the crucified life and living in the power of Christ's indwelling. He echoes Hebrew 12, that the suffering in the temporal is to point us to the eternal, so that all things result in our increased faith, and in our sharing the good news. That results in more people coming to know the grace of God.
Even the decay, as he called it, of our physical body should only remind us to let go of the temporal and embrace the eternal. So, it's okay that our bodies wear out as we get older. It's okay that we get bifocals, our hair grays and thins, our joints ache. Thank God that our inner man is being renewed daily.
What's important is that our lives and our speech proclaim the grace of God - sufficient for all our needs, and the needs of a lost and dying world. That will be accomplished by, and result in, abundant, abounding thanksgiving to the glory of God. All things are "for your sakes." So we can thank Him for all things and through doing so, help spread His grace. The more people who experience His grace, the more people will give thanks, and the more God will be glorified. So, we don't "lose heart." We are not discouraged by "all things" (good or bad). We know that He will use this to bring glory to Himself, and to grow us and mature us.
Thanksgiving for all things brings us rest as we express faith in the process of God to save us and grow us spiritually. Thanksgiving brings glory to God. God uses all things to accomplish His purpose of spreading grace in the world, and shining forth His light through the darkness that we may know Him. Thanksgiving for all things keeps us from losing heart by reminding us that all things are for our benefit when entrusted to His wise and loving hand.
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