“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. “
“and be [become] thankful”
The Greek says, “become thankful.” It does not mean to “be” something; it means to become something we were not previously. “Become” indicates that the Colossians were not thankful before this challenge from Paul.
Every believer should have an attitude of thanksgiving no matter what happens. Adversity is a test to see whether we are a slave to our circumstances or whether the circumstances are a slave to us. If we have inner joy where all systems are “go,” there is no disaster, failure, problem, or catastrophe for which we cannot be thankful.
The peace of Christ enables us to be thankful for everything. The plan of God converts everything into a blessing. Having Christ’s stability should be the everyday Christian life. It is abnormal for the Christian to fall apart, live in a state of panic, and sublimate for pain. The plan of God in Christ stabilizes our orientation in life.
Thankfulness occurs throughout the Word of God. Why? The Christian knows that he neither earns nor deserves anything from God. Everything we have is of God’s grace. We do not deserve the food on the table or the roof over our heads. Both are undeserved gifts from God.
Thankfulness relates to our capacity of soul. A person with little faculty of soul has little facility to give God thanks. If we do not fully appreciate the work of Christ, how can we give thanks properly for it? The key to thanksgiving is the ability to understand the undeserved blessings God has bestowed upon us.
Principle:
Adversity is God’s test of our soul to see whether we are free from the circumstances of life.
Application:
When God asks us to give thanks, He does not ask us to pray about it. He does not say, “Try to be thankful.” He says, “Become thankful” (Ps. 92:1; 106:1; 1 Thes. 5:18). We have a solid foundation for giving thanks because God has done so much for us by His unadulterated grace (Eph 5:20).
A common complaint among parents is that their children do not show appreciation for what they give them. When we recall our childhood, we did not appreciate our parents either. Children today are no different; they are not thankful for what they have. Children have little capacity to understand what their parents have done for them. God can say, “My children do not appreciate what I have done for them; they seldom give thanks for what they have.” Inadequate thanksgiving is an issue of our maturity in Christ.
In your daily devotions, do you make it a practice to give thanks to God every day? God wants us to say, “Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul, making me whole, sustaining me every day.”
