Scripture: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Observation: True life in Christ is characterized by gratitude. Of all the ordinary Christians like you and I that I’ve know over my life, the ones that oozed gratitude inspire me the most. Interestingly, and probably tellingly, they’ve faced as many challenges as anyone else I’ve known. Adversity, grief, loss, struggle, hardship, tragedy—all of it. Yet somehow they remain “overflowing with thankfulness.”
I’m not saying inauthentic concerning the depth of pain. Nor glossing over real tragedy. But believers who have known the presence of God, the healing of God, the power of God in their lives despite having faced those experiences.
“Overflowing with thankfulness” doesn’t result from rarely or never facing hardship. It comes from never facing it alone—even when we only later realized that God was drawing near to us even before we had explicit knowledge of Him. David didn’t say he never had to walk through a dark valley. He said, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley… you are with me.”
Thankfulness is the right response to a gift—something that comes into our life not by earning a reward but by being loved by someone. Having received Christ is knowing that we are loved by the Almighty God of all creation. Gift, after all, is another word for grace.
Application: What can you give thanks to God for today? Take a moment and let your gratitude overflow.
Prayer: Lord, thank you. Thank you for all with which you have graced my life. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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Amen!