The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Most Thankful Heart"
Imagine a life and a world without gratitude, both felt and expressed. What if God had made us without the capacity for acknowledging His blessings with thanksgiving, or giving thanks for the kindness of others? A bleakness of heart would ensue, leaving us without a primary component of our humanity, or more importantly, of experiencing the glory of God's divinity. The latter truth actually offers a gift of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ often overlooked.
"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18).
The Lord Jesus lived a life of thanksgiving. On eleven occasions in the Gospels, Scripture records His offering of gratitude to His Father. "I thank Thee, o Father" (Matthew 11:25). This same grateful One, the most thankful of all, now lives in our hearts to lead us in a life of giving thanks.
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
I find this aspect of thanksgiving the most fascinating and encouraging. What if believers' sincere expression of gratitude to God flows to Him not merely from ourselves, but from ourselves as led and enabled by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus? It does. Christ graces our gratitude with Himself and His "Abba Father," meaning that our Heavenly Father receives our thanks as something far more than we usually consider.
Ponder this sometime when expressing the most simple, but heartfelt thanksgiving to God for His gracious generosity. Someone dwelling deeply within our heart moves us to express our appreciation, and then accompanies our offering as it proceeds to the throne of grace. We can only wonder how this must move the heart of our Heavenly Father. Certainly, the Psalmist's affirmation, "The Lord taketh pleasure in His people," speaks to this as a particularly sublime way whereby we bring gladness to our Father's heart (Psalm 149:4).
A life without gratitude would not really be life, would it? Conversely, a life with gratitude viewed not only in terms of ourselves, but of ourselves in Christ and through Christ becomes something far more alive than can be imagined. Yes, "Thank You" makes its way to the throne of God and the heart of God in a blessedness to Him that makes gratitude a far more realized blessedness to us. As the command mentioned above addresses, we give thanks "in Christ Jesus." Thus, our thanksgiving does not journey alone to our Father, but rather originates and wends its way to Him as graced with the most thankful Heart of all.
"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."
(Colossians 3:17)
Weekly Memory Verse
"The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way."
(Psalm 25:9)
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