THANKFUL!
Have you thanked the Lord today for two working arms? Probably not, unless you, like me had a cast removed from your left arm. I am incredibly thankful to have my arm back!!
It made me think about 'thankfulness'. How easily we take things for granted, until we lose them! I know for a while I will be grateful for the use of my left arm, but will I still be intentionally grateful for it a year from now? Probably not, I will predictably slip back to taking it for granted!
I was thinking about all the Bible verses that admonish us to be grateful. I Thess. 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Then I thought about praise along with thanksgiving and considered the difference between the two. I realized 'praise' has to do with who another person is or what they have done. But thankfulness has to do with what YOU RECEIVED. So PRAISE is about someone else, while thankfulness is about you.
I did a Bible search to see how many times the word 'thankful' (thankful, thankfulness, thanking thanked) were in the Bible -- 109 times, 61 in the OT and 48 in the NT.
I also looked up the word 'praise' (praise, praised, praising) and found 238 - 210 in the OT and 28 in the NT.
But what I was really interested in looking at was not the 'call' to praise God or the admonishing to be 'thankful' to Him- we know that is a Bible theme. I was curious to look at who personally expressed thankfulness in the Bible. To my surprise, I found very few!
I was thinking about all the Bible verses that admonish us to be grateful. I Thess. 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Then I thought about praise along with thanksgiving and considered the difference between the two. I realized 'praise' has to do with who another person is or what they have done. But thankfulness has to do with what YOU RECEIVED. So PRAISE is about someone else, while thankfulness is about you.
I did a Bible search to see how many times the word 'thankful' (thankful, thankfulness, thanking thanked) were in the Bible -- 109 times, 61 in the OT and 48 in the NT.
I also looked up the word 'praise' (praise, praised, praising) and found 238 - 210 in the OT and 28 in the NT.
But what I was really interested in looking at was not the 'call' to praise God or the admonishing to be 'thankful' to Him- we know that is a Bible theme. I was curious to look at who personally expressed thankfulness in the Bible. To my surprise, I found very few!
In the Old Testament I found only one Bible character of whom it is said he was personally thankful. or grateful for something. That person was Jonah - what was he thankful for? The plant that sprung up to give him shade from the heat of the sun! (Jonah 4:6)
In the original Greek the word for 'grateful' . means "rejoiced with great joy!"
Can you be grateful or thankful for something without 'joy' ? I don't think so, if you have no 'joy' about something you received , are you truly grateful ? I think of an extreme example - you owe a debt of 100,000.00 dollars and you have no way to repay it and you know there are fire consequences coming. then you have someone knock on your door to deliver documents that prove they have paid your debt and you are free of it. Would your reaction be without joy? I don't think so. Or your new car is stolen, and then the police call and say they have found it, undamaged! Would you hear that news without 'joy' ? I don't think so!
I also thought about Hanna, the only other person that I think expressed personal gratitude in the Old Testament stories, even though the word thankfulness or gratitude is not used.
Look at her prayer in I Sam. 2:1. after she was given the son she begged God for - and now she is grateful for him and is fulfilling her promise to give him back to God. It says, "And Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord, My horn (mouth) is exalted in the Lord, I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation." Look how 'personal' that is... MY heart rejoices, MY mouth is exalted, I SMILE , MY enemies, I REJOICE... The 'joy' of her thankful heart is overflowing.
I also thought about Hanna, the only other person that I think expressed personal gratitude in the Old Testament stories, even though the word thankfulness or gratitude is not used.
Look at her prayer in I Sam. 2:1. after she was given the son she begged God for - and now she is grateful for him and is fulfilling her promise to give him back to God. It says, "And Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord, My horn (mouth) is exalted in the Lord, I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation." Look how 'personal' that is... MY heart rejoices, MY mouth is exalted, I SMILE , MY enemies, I REJOICE... The 'joy' of her thankful heart is overflowing.
Then look at verse two -- here she expresses PRAISE for who God is - "None HOLY as the Lord, none BESIDE YOU, nor is there ANY ROCK like God." She 'praises' the One she is 'thankful' to for what she has received.
Then in the New Testament we have a few more examples...
In Luke 2:38 we have an old widow, named Anna, who had just witnessed baby Jesus in the temple being blessed by Simion and she recognized Him as the Messiah! "And coming in at that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him (Jesus) to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem"
That she should personally see Jesus, the promised Messiah, before she died was an incredible gift to her and she was exceedingly grateful!
In luke 17:we have the familiar story of the 10 lepers that were healed. But only one, a hated Samaritan, came back to express his thanks. Was he filled with joy? Yes, we read that in verse 15 where, when he realized he was healed "glorified God with a loud voice" (like Hanna, 'an exalted mouth) And in his joy he came back to give 'thanks' personally!
We Have one more example in Acts 28:15 where Paul, coming to the end of a difficult journey, saw 'brethren' coming to meet him and he was encouraged and thanked God for them.
I wondered at how few stories we have about thankful people in our Bibles.
I thought of two possible reasons.
One answers why there are so few on the OT. The Old Covenant is based on the law and the law demands obedience. Children - under the 'law' of their parents- take for granted the things they are given, and they obey to avoid getting in trouble. So, like children praise their parents, "My daddy is bigger than your daddy!", OT saints praised God for who He is is but thankfulness is a more personal response that comes with maturity.
One answers why there are so few on the OT. The Old Covenant is based on the law and the law demands obedience. Children - under the 'law' of their parents- take for granted the things they are given, and they obey to avoid getting in trouble. So, like children praise their parents, "My daddy is bigger than your daddy!", OT saints praised God for who He is is but thankfulness is a more personal response that comes with maturity.
Is the second reason because we are at heart an ungrateful lot? Surely there is much in all of our lives that we should be grateful for and say so! In Romans 1:18-24 we have God's judgement against unrighteousness and we see that the first step into sin is 'thankfulness'.
If we consider that an unthankful heart leads it to sin, then it follows that a thankful heart keeps us on the straight and narrow ! If we are honest we see that it is true that a thankful heart is a contented heart, a contented heart is a happy heart, and a happy heart is joyfully recognizing the blessings that fill their every day.
So I repeat the verse I began with .. "IN EVERYTHING gives thanks..." why? because God wants us to be joyful and He knows if we are thankful, we are joyful and if we are joyful, we live in His presence and enjoy His goodness in our daily lives.
If we consider that an unthankful heart leads it to sin, then it follows that a thankful heart keeps us on the straight and narrow ! If we are honest we see that it is true that a thankful heart is a contented heart, a contented heart is a happy heart, and a happy heart is joyfully recognizing the blessings that fill their every day.
So I repeat the verse I began with .. "IN EVERYTHING gives thanks..." why? because God wants us to be joyful and He knows if we are thankful, we are joyful and if we are joyful, we live in His presence and enjoy His goodness in our daily lives.
