How Full Is Your Thank Tank?
What if we woke up tomorrow with only the things we were thankful for today? The first time I heard that, it really stopped me in my tracks. We’re really good at thanking God for our food when we sit down to eat, and we’re even better at a mindless “thank God” when someone mentions something we agree with. But literally, we are speechless when asked on-the-spot to name five things for which we are thankful. Why is that?
Pride. Let’s face it…we’ve all questioned why certain things happen to us. “Why me?” “I don’t deserve this.” Unfortunately, but quite naturally, we fall into that pit where we lose sight of God and His capability to save us from our calamity. We scoff at 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which tells us to be thankful in ALL circumstances, wondering how in the world can we be thankful for a flood that just devoured our every possession, or even worse, a car accident that took the life of a loved one. Isaiah 29:13 “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” This scripture tells me that thankfulness is not just about voicing our gratitude to God, but that our hearts have to be right too. The heart is a muscle and for it to remain strong, we exercise regularly to increase and/or maintain its efficiency. For us to be able to be thankful in tragic situations, we must exercise our gratitude daily, like it’s a muscle, to increase and/or maintain its efficiency.
Having a 1 Thessalonians thankfulness is about accepting our circumstances with humility, understanding that God is greater than anything we face and that He is capable of using our perceived negative situations for our good. This kind of thankfulness is not something we can master; it will never be something that just becomes as natural to us as breathing. Because of our sinful nature, we must fight daily to maintain a thankful heart. We must have a relentless pursuit of God’s truths and remembrance of all that He’s done for us to cultivate a thankful spirit.
How full is your thank tank?