9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,e 10so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youf to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
This ^^ is a list of things we should do:
1. bearing fruit in every good work,
2. growing in the knowledge of God,
3. 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
4. 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father
Then moving onto Col 2 we see this:
Col 2:6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
The Lord emphasizes thankfulness over and over again throughout His Word. As we see throughout the Word as well its His way or the highway. Those who are full of thanks are blessed, those who grumble and complain get cut down like weeds:
Num 14:26The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27“How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
Bottom line?
Griping and complaining wont take us far with the Lord. There is a fine line between reasoning with Him and complaining. I think we all know the difference. I we would learn to give thanks always, even when our guts are turning upside down in our bellies as we face our battles every day, things will go better for us.
What is the big deal with giving thanks? The fundamental questions in life:
What were we created for? Why are we here?
Colossians 1:16
All things being created by Him, were created for him; being made by his power, they were made according to his pleasure, and for his praise and glory
We were created for His glory. How do we glorify Him? One way is through giving thanks.
We are all going through battles in life. The Lord gave us instructions for how to move through these battles. What if things we do could shorten the battles? Would we do them? What if things we do could avoid some of the battles altogether? Would we do them? Giving thanks is one of these things that can shorten battles and avoid some battles altogether.
Who knows how much time we have left here. It would seem that 2014 will kick off some real fireworks. What can we do with the remaining time to serve and please the Lord? One thing we can all do is give thanks always. We can all find something to give thanks for.
grace and peace
