Abounding in Thanksgiving

 
   " Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." 
Colossians 2:6-7 ESV



How often do we "abound in thanksgiving"?  It actually means: to overflow, to excel still more, to increase in excellence. I don't think that I can claim to excel in thanksgiving much less excel still more or increase in excellence. I am way behind when it comes to thanksgiving. It should be my daily attitude and practice but to often it is not. This is telling of a couple of major things: that I don't really know God, who He is and what He has done and I don't know myself, how sinful I am and what great need I have. Or I have lost focus, forgotten these most important things, it is the Gospel, after all.
Throughout the Old Testament this phrase is repeated in some form over and over again: “Oh give thanks to the LORD for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever.” Psalm 136 regales us with the deeds of our God and gives thanks for His enduring love. 2 Chronicles 20 recounts a story where there was a special group of people, dressed in holy attire appointed to go before the army saying ”Give thanks to the LORD for His steadfast love endures forever.” Nehemiah formed two great choirs who stood on the north and the south walls of the city to give thanks to the LORD. How often do we thank the Lord for His enduring, steadfast love? Do we even believe that His steadfast love endures forever? I think that we sometimes get so caught up in looking at our circumstances and thinking about how much we dislike them or looking at others and how they have hurt us that we neglect God and ignore His steadfast love.
Which leads to the second problem:
my lack of awareness of my own sin and hatred of it and hatred of sin in general. If I am unaware of the depth of my debt then I also do not realize the greatness of the grace and mercy that has been shown me and therefore don't feel a need to be thankful to anyone. It reminds me of the story in Luke 7 about the woman who anointed Jesus feet with oil. The Pharisees were upset about Jesus letting such a sinful person near him. Jesus, knowing what they were thinking, told them a parable/story about two men who had been forgiven their debts and asked who would love the man who cancelled their debt more. The answer was of course the one who had the greatest debt. Jesus goes on to say that the woman's sins are many and she is forgiven and loves much but he who is forgiven little loves little. The thing is that most of us have the great misconception that we don't have all that much that needs forgiving. Sure we may not have committed murder, sexual abuse, child abuse, been embroiled in pornography or adultery or any of those other things that you might put in the list of horrible things that you think you would never do. But the sad thing is that those of us who might have been spared from being involved in these sins have probably committed over and over one of the sins that God hates the most, for it is at the root of all sin...pride, self-righteousness. When we look at those “other” people and think that we are better than them, we are sinning. All sin had to be paid for at the cross. We are like the Pharisee in Jesus parable in Luke 18, who thanked God that he was not like other men, listing particular kinds of sins and then bragging on what he had done, thanking God that he wasn't like that sinner over there. While the sinner over there was praying “Lord be merciful to me a sinner!” Jesus said the second man went to his house justified. If we are more aware of someone else's sin than we are of our own, we probably don't have the kind of thankful heart that is honoring to God. And we have more than likely spent more time telling God things than listening to Him.
How can we abound in thanksgiving? We must know God, pursue Him with all our heart, know that His love is steadfast, enduring forever, then we can trust Him in all those circumstances and give thanks in all things knowing that He is faithfully working in love for our good and His glory that many more might know of His steadfast love. Look withHis eyes at our circumstances and at people who hurt us or bug us or love us imperfectly. Look at ourselves just long enough to know that we deserve hell and can abound in thankfulness because He who gave His Son is for us and wins!
O Father God, how merciful You are to us, wretched and sinful though we may be. Thank You for Your unmatchless, enduring, steadfast love. Thank You that You don't give up on us. Thank You that You are for us and gave Your own Son that we might have life abundantly. O, help us to know You and love You deeply. You are worthy. May You be glorified, honored, praised, thanked and sought every minute of every day. Help us to be a people abounding in thanksgiving. In Jesus name, Amen