Giving Thanks – The Aroma, The Music, The Poetry and The Crown

Being a Christian is something extraordinary; I never cease to marvel at the life God has given me by connecting me to Him through Jesus. In reality, the Christian is in such a privileged position being in a relationship with this extraordinary Being that is God, that surely gratitude cannot be lacking in his life. There is so much to give thanks for. We must give thanks for what
• God is as He is,
• of what we are in relation with Him,
• that we have met Jesus, that we know who He is,
• we must give thanks that we are saved,
• and filled with the Holy Spirit.

We must wake up every day with a happy heart because We are part of God's family, we must pause to celebrate the fact that Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers. Thankfulness should spring from our being and fill our hearts just by thinking about the fact that we are no longer under condemnation but that He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We have reason to be thankful; and when we see that thankfulness is absent from our hearts, we must take time to recharge ourselves and renew the sense of gratitude to God.

We should be more alarmed by spiritual barrenness than by natural barrenness. How often do people worry that things are not going very well at work, at school, or elsewhere, and then start praying! External difficulties quickly attract our attention and drive us to fast and feverishly ask God for a solution. We should not be any more passive in the face of lukewarmness and spiritual barrenness than we are when it comes to natural challenges.

Giving thanks, said EM Bounds, 'is the very life of prayer,' 'it is its aroma and music, its poetry and crown.' If you find that your heart no longer erupts in rapture before God, that thanksgiving and praise have become mere rituals, a habit, something you do only 'by faith' without true gratitude in your heart, then a break is in order. It is time to fast and pray, to meditate on God's word until you are once again overwhelmed and deeply touched by the awareness of God's goodness, lost in wonder at the magnificence of God's works toward man, and your heart is filled with thanksgiving and your mouth bursts forth in thanksgiving and praise.

This is what it means to be a Christian.
Selah!