The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Thinking and Thanking"
God gave us brains and the capacity to think for many reasons. None engage our mind better than gratitude and the giving of thanks.
"In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18).
A truly thinking mind directly corresponds with a thanking mind. We walk in the deepest darkness and most mindless neglect if a river of gratitude does not course through our thoughts. Certainly, this does not mean we must consciously thank our Heavenly Father in every moment. Again, He gave us brains for many uses, all of which He purposes us to use with diligence and determined engagement. However, if thanksgiving does not occupy a primary place among these applications, we can be sure of a most consequential failure to use our brains. As the old saying goes, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Wasted indeed is a brain unused for gratitude.
Writing these words causes me to think of how often I have wasted my own mind, and how negligent I have often been regarding the thanking that should flow from thinking. I suspect most believers feel this way, first, because one of the main truths about gratitude involves the realization of how impossible it is to feel and express it enough. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 5:17). Every moment of our existence can and must be viewed as a gift from the great Giver. Moreover, "every good and perfect gift" comes with a price tag, namely, the suffering, forsakenness, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ that purchased our redemption and everything God will ever do for us throughout an everlasting eternity. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely given us all things?" (Romans 8:32). In this holy light, how can we ever begin to be grateful and offer gratitude to the degree our Lord so richly deserves?
We also know that we have missed opportunities for thinking and thanking, most often by not thinking as led by the Holy Spirit. He will lead us to the altar of gratitude consistently and frequently as we trust and submit to His loving guidance. "When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). Such guidance will result in the thinking that leads to thanking, and the use of our minds for one of their most holy, God-pleasing, and heart-fulfilling capacities. Yes, thinking and thanking go hand in hand, and heart in heart.
"Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness… O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee forever."
(Psalm 30:4; 12)
Weekly Memory Verse
Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.
(Psalm 31:19)
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