One curious thing we see in Paul’s letter to Rome is that failure to honour God and failure to give thanks to God are the two failures he mentions when explaining what caused the futility and depravity of mankind, and God’s subsequent deliverance of mankind over to their lusts and impurities and idolatry. Failure to give thanks!
Ever since this author really came to grips with that text, the element of gratitude and thanking God became prominent in ordinary daily prayers.
Let us think for a second about the time in which we often thank God. There’s dinner time, where some families say grace before eating. In North American families, there’s the Thanksgiving holiday, in which (we imagine) Christian families would direct their thanks to God. Observation suggests that God’s affirmative response to our prayers, especially in the manner and timing we were hoping, also elicits much gratitude, but otherwise giving thanks is largely not seen as the main feature of either our prayer lives or our communion with God.
We mentioned this in our article on Gnosticism and Christian Hedonism but only briefly. To quickly summarise one of those points, thanking God for ordinary physical things like nice clothes and good food and enjoying them to God’s glory is a performative refutation of gnosticism, because it elevates the value and significance of mere material things, shattering the false dichotomy between spiritual-valuable and physical-worthless.
Building an ‘attitude of gratitude’, as the youngest son of this author’s parents put it, is a truly life-giving blessing. You will have a hard time fretting about a million things that haven’t gone your way and your inexhaustible list of things God should do for you if you consciously decide to thank God for everything you can think of—and why stop there?
You only have so many hours per day, and the information you choose to fill your head with is really your call. Whatever it is, it will disciple and train you. Will you use your time and attention being conformed to the image of God’s son, or being discipled in the desires and fears of your culture? This is not something you can opt out of. It is not whether you will be discipled, but by whom, or by what.
We digress; the point is this. If you learn to slow down by itemising and counting the things God has done for you (or should we say, the things God has done for you that you are aware of), you will see how progressively bigger and more gracious he appears to you, or as Beautiful Eulogy put it,
“When Jesus Christ becomes progressively bigger, or better yet, your understanding of who he is progressively conforms to reality, your faith will become increasingly stronger.” (Devotion – Worthy)
Ok, let’s get down to the meat and bones. Try this. Pray in gradually widening concentric circles. Start by thanking him for how he made you, warts and all. Thank him for your family, your friends, your communities and the places you feel safe. Don’t rush this. Say their names. Picture them. Enjoy the memories, all the while thanking him.
Thank God for hard lessons you’ve learned in grief, loss, failure, in your sin and repentance. Thank him for the things he’s doing that you don’t know about. There’s a lot of them, believe it.
Get creative. when you see an animal you like or a flower you like, or architecture that you find so pleasing, or a pleasant cloud, stop and thank him for it. He designed it, and how well at that! keep in mind, he is the author of history, so he intended that you would be blessed by this thing you have just thanked him for.
Additionally, of course, thank God that you’re here, which you still are if you’re able to read this. Though this author doesn’t exactly know who is reading, he is most exceedingly glad that you are indeed here. Praise God!
Finally, and this one might require you to sit down, or brace yourself, all Providence benefits the elect where it matters, so you should learn to thank God in things that suck, because he puts you in them so he can bring you through them. Notice we say thank God ‘in’ things that suck, not ‘for’ things that suck. The distinction is this. If a wicked and sinful thing is done against you, it is not the sinful action that you appreciate or are grateful for. It is the God who is sovereign that you are grateful for. It is the fact that ‘this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ that should give us a gritty but glowing hope. It is the fact that he doesn’t make mistakes, and that it is for your good, and his glory.
If we, as cushy and comfortable Western Christians are to be prepared for the persecution and trial that has been the experience of God’s people throughout history, we must be furnished with a strong faith. One that, should our family die in a naval accident, could pen ‘It is well with my soul’. One that, should our blessed freedom vanish like a mist, will be prepared to stand for Christ, even unto death. It all begins with giving thanks.
Distilled Orthopraxy 