Living A Life Of Thanksgiving

Living in a city like Hong Kong, full of diversity, has broken open my window of narrow thinking, built up my muscle of adaptation and brought about the joy of every tribe, tongue and nation coming together within the church body.

There are some aspects of other cultures that I am yet to understand, however, one tradition from another culture that we were quick to adopt as a family, is the annual Thanksgiving Dinner. How wonderful to set a date each year to gather with friends and family, share food and declare thankfulness. Over the last couple of years, as I have adopted this annual Thanksgiving celebration date in my calendar, an attitude of daily thanksgiving has been birthed in my heart, concurrently.

When we go to God’s word we see that thankfulness is something he regularly calls us to, he actually commands us, to practice. Scripture talks over and over again about ‘giving thanks’, ‘with thanksgiving’ or even ‘overflowing in thanksgiving’.   Thessalonians 5 V18 says that we ought to “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Thankfulness seems to be a mark of belonging to Christ. Why is that? We know that God does not need our polite manners, like a child saying please and thank you, but like all of His ways, His commands are for our good and his glory.

Thanksgiving is not always easy but it is a discipline we ought to reflect on. When is it that we tend to give thanks? What is the culture of thanksgiving like in our community? How do we grow this heart of thanksgiving? Like growth in any area of life, at first, it can feel more like a discipline than a delight, but delight follows on from the consistent intentional practice, and we begin to recognise a shift in our hearts.

So why does living a life of thanksgiving even matter?

1. Thanksgiving Produces Heart Peace and Freedom

In Philippians 4, we see there is a promise of peace that follows from thanksgiving. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own world, absorbed by the pressures and the voices, and slowly anxiety rises. Recently, my daughter was feeling bored, irritable and quite sorry for herself. My patience was wearing thin and so we took a moment to talk it through. We spoke about all the resources she has at her fingertips, and all the options she had to use her time well. We came before God and we remembered what we had forgotten. We put ourselves in the shoes of those who only have an old cardboard box. Another’s trash transformed into a play car to push around and then their shelter for the night. She commented, “Mom, sometimes we so easily forget to be thankful for what we have and we just want more and more”. I think this captures it so well. The practice of thanksgiving helps us to remember, producing peace and contentment in our hearts. As Scotty Smith says, “..thankfulness is the means by which self-pity is sabotaged and fears shrink. It is the most powerful means of gaining and maintaining heart peace and freedom.”

Thankfulness lifts our gaze off of ourselves, and in doing so, also frees us from the entanglement of grumbling, comparison and self-pity. Thankfulness crushes the allure of more, bigger and better and instead marvels at the mysteries God has placed right before our eyes and in our hands.

2. Thanksgiving Pronounces God’s Glory

“I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.” Psalm 69 V30 . How wonderful! Our thanksgiving brings glory to God! As we overflow with thankfulness, we begin to stand out. Our lives don’t mimic the entitled, begrudging world around us. We carry a grace-filled billboard that proclaims to the world that there is more to live for than that which we so easily believe to be everything. We all find it easy to be thankful when things go well for us, but it’s in the monotonous, the disappointments and the suffering that we get to display to the world that our lives are secure in our glorious and gracious King Jesus. We bring glory to God as we humbly come before him with praise and thanksgiving, recognising that we are broken sinful people, yet by his grace, we are heirs in His Kingdom.

3. Thanksgiving Permeates To Those Around Us

“And on that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted.’ Praise the LORD in song, for He has done glorious things; let this be known throughout the earth”. Isaiah 12 V4-5 Not only is thanksgiving internal and vertical, but it is horizontal too. As we give thanks to the Lord, we encourage others to remember and participate in exalting him. When last did you encounter a thankful person who was miserable? When we overflow with thankfulness, we bless those around us. How delightful it is to be with those who are not entitled or always looking for more, but those who are thankful and secure in Christ. It is almost contagious when I think about such people in my life. Their attitude of thanks has helped me remember that Christ is exalted, as we see in Isaiah 12. The heart freedom that comes from thankfulness also allows us to be generous in thankfulness to our brothers and sisters – what a way to love them.

4. Thanksgiving Prepares Us For Eternity

One day every one of us will come face to face with Jesus. How will we respond? The magnitude of his majesty and glory will be revealed and we will fall on our knees in praise and thanksgiving, as we see in Revelation 4 V9 “..give glory, honour and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever.” Thanksgiving and praise will be our permanent heart posture for all eternity. As we live with this heart now, we practice something of Heaven on earth, a taste of eternity with Christ, and we reflect something of the eternal to the temporal world around us.

Going back to how I began – it has been said that thanksgiving is a discipline that flows into a delight. I agree with this, in that our sinful self is not by nature a thankful one and it takes discipline to move in this direction. Delight does follow, but delight also precedes a life of thanksgiving. A heart of true thanksgiving is rooted in delight. Delight in God’s amazing grace and the picture of perfect grace seen in the gift of His Son, Jesus. “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” as Ephesians 2:7 says.

As Christians, thanksgiving is not just the right thing to do, but it is at the core of who we are because we recognise that our lives are washed with grace upon grace from beginning to end. We are sinners who daily recognise God’s saving grace and daily reflect on his lavish love. When our thankfulness is rooted in the unshakable, rock-solid Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what season we find ourselves in, no matter what kind of day we have had, whether we live in abundance or in need, we can be thankful. Thankful to the praise of His glory, from now until eternity. So let us together “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16 V34