To Encourage You

Colossians 2:6-7 “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him . . .  abounding in thanksgiving.”

One of the metaphors the Word of God uses for itself is a mirror. In James 1:23-24 it says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”  As we all know, a mirror is something we use to look at ourselves on the outside.  I think it would be a fair assumption to say that the more a person cares about their outward appearance, the more time they will spend looking at themselves in a mirror.  It shows us if our face is dirty. It shows us if our hair is out of place.  Otherwise, unless someone else told us, we wouldn’t know such things. 

Similarly, the Word of God is God’s mirror that He has provided for us to look at ourselves on the inside.  One way it does this is by making direct statements about our hearts and the motives behind our actions. For example, it tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).  It’s telling us that whatever we thought about our own hearts – which is a metaphor for our minds, our thought life, the very core of our being – it is worse than we can know.  It’s not a pretty picture.  But, unlike a physical mirror, the Word of God also provides the remedy. In Mark 2:17 Jesus tells us that “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” With these words He is telling us that He is the one and only remedy for our inner sickness. He is the One Who can heal the disease if we will but put our faith in Him. 

Another way the Bible functions as a mirror is to hold up a picture of what we should look like as a comparison to how we are.  That’s the means that God’s Word is using in the verses from Colossians 2 above. There it tells us that believers should be “abounding with thanksgiving.”  It’s telling us so that we can ask ourselves the question, “Am I abounding in thanksgiving?  Is that what I look like on the inside? Does thanksgiving so fill my heart that it overflows from my lips?” If our answer is “No,” then it’s telling us that if we would actually be “walking in Christ,” i.e., living a life in continual communion and fellowship with Him, then we would be full of thanksgiving just like He was. 

Have you ever thought about how thankful Jesus was as He walked on earth?  Because of His perfect relationship with the Father, He saw things perfectly as they really are.  He knew that every drop of water that ever fell from the sky came from the Father. He knew that every breath of air was a gift from God.  As He looked at the birds of the air, He knew that every one of them received its food, in one way or another, from the hand of God – as did every other living thing, including man.  As he looked at the lilies and their beauty, He knew that it was God Who had so beautifully clothed them, and it was God that likewise had provided clothes for you and me. He knew that walking was a gift of God, as was speaking, hearing, seeing, smelling, and touching.  He knew that the sky was a beautiful blue because God had made it that way.  He knew that the Father heard Him when He prayed and He thanked Him for it (John 11:41).  He thanked God as He prepared to give His life for the world (Matthew 26:26-29).  He was thankful to God for everything, for He knew full well that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:7).  And it is just as Jesus walked that we are to walk.  We are to abound in thanksgiving. It should mark our life.

Thankfulness to our gracious, giving, merciful God should be often on our mind and frequently on our lips.  We should be known by this.  Rather than grumbling about our situation in life, as the ungrateful Israelites did as they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, we should be overflowing with thankfulness.  Every Christian should be full of gratitude for God’s forgiveness, mercy, grace, love, joy, and peace, for all of it, every shred, is from the Lord. 

How thankful should we be for eternal life?  How can we ever be thankful enough for such things?  We should be as the psalmist who said, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1). We should pray with thanksgiving knowing that God has surely promised to answer (Philippians 4:6).  And we should live lives that cause thanksgiving to flow from the hearts and lips of others, for God’s rich blessings to us should be passed on through us to everyone we meet as God gives us opportunity.  Grateful, thankful attitudes should fill our hearts to overflowing and fill our lips with praise.

So, how are you doing in this area? What’s your view from this mirror of our hearts?  Would friends, coworkers, and family members say that thankfulness is something that characterizes your life?  May God help us to be “abounding in thanksgiving.” May this wonderful attribute mark our lives.  Thankfulness: it’s one of the things that we should see as we peer into the mirror of God’s Word.