Thankful in Christ
Happy Thanksgiving to you! Often, during the Thanksgiving season, we are exhorted to remember to be thankful for God and what he has done. And how could we not give you that same encouragement! We have an amazing God who has done so much for us. In Scripture, worship and thankfulness are often linked when we talk about God. It is through realizing that God is awesome, glorious, and mighty that we give him thanks—and we call that worship.
This month, we have been sharing articles from our elders and members as they reflect on God and what he has done in their heart and life that has led them to greater awe, thankfulness, and worship of God. Today, we have the pleasure of hearing from Ryan Eagy.
“We thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven.”
Colossians 1:3–5a ESV
It is interesting to see what causes people around us to give thanks. For many of the football players I see on TV, it is a touchdown or a crucial sack that causes them to stop and thank God through a quick prayer or a congratulatory word to another player for their good work. People are quick to say thank you for an open door, a kind gesture, or momentary help with a task. The Thanksgiving season reminds many of us of our thankfulness for our family—as hard as they may be at times—and our joy and thankfulness to be able to celebrate with neighbors and friends.
While these are all great things to be thankful for, as we see in Colossians 1:3–5a above, Paul and others throughout Scripture usually start with a different orientation for thankfulness—faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. It’s not hard to find this perspective all over Scripture:
“Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” (Romans 6:17 ESV)
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56–47 ESV)
“Who will deliver me from this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24b–25 ESV)
Now, you may be thinking, “Of course a pastor is going to make a Thankfulness blog post all about Jesus and faith!” Well, yes! But it is usually the right reorientation in thankfulness even for me. I am often very quick to think about my own life and say to myself, “Yes, I have faith in Jesus and joy in my salvation through his life…but what should I do now?” Or I look at others who have come to faith, are growing in their faith, and I wonder, “what next steps should I encourage them in?”
Of course, we need to walk out our faith in real ways (Philippians 2:12, James 2:14–26), and we want to see everyone move from an immature faith to a mature faith (Hebrews 6:1). Our problem is we think we need to move away from this thankfulness to accomplish it and don’t realize that thankfulness for being in Christ Jesus may be the best (and perhaps only) way we walk out our faith tangibly and toward maturity. As Paul continues writing to the Colossians, he says just that:
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6 ESV)
Their maturity, walk, and growth—our maturity, walk, and growth—must be rooted and built up in our faith in Jesus, abounding in thanksgiving. Thankfulness in Jesus is the only path we have, and it is designed to produce exactly what we need.
This is challenging to me. I am quick to move past what God has done for me in Jesus as though it is just the basics and I need to move on to what is “more important.” Yet Paul is encouraging us to find ourselves, in all aspects, in Jesus Christ. Our salvation in Jesus Christ is not a portion of our thankfulness, it is the thankfulness that drives everything in our life. This seems very true for Paul, who, even though he was in prison, could find joy and thankfulness. Why? Because how could the momentary trial of prison compare to the amazing joy of knowing he is saved from certain destruction and destined to a life forevermore in the presence and service of his savior! For me and you, how can any light and momentary affliction that we encounter here on this earth (2 Corinthians 4:17) compare when we rightly savor what our savior accomplished for us in his righteous life and on the cross?
What would change in this Thanksgiving season in your life if you focused less on doing, and more on thankfulness in Jesus Christ? Undoubtedly, real patterns would change (would you pray more, read Scripture more, talk with others about God more?), but it wouldn’t be driven by a goal to do more or different things, but rather it would be a natural fruit and outpouring of your thankfulness. Are you thankful that your entire life has changed and is now wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ because of what he did for you on the cross?
This is the natural bridge for us in this season from Thanksgiving to Advent. Advent is a sustained time to remember God’s plans and purposes for us in Jesus Christ, and to be thankful! My prayer for me and you is that we find our entire life rooted in Jesus Christ with thankfulness this Thanksgiving. May God use this upcoming time of Advent to reorient us away from our doing toward a heart of thankfulness, and may we say along with Paul, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15 ESV)