Overflowing with Thankfulness

Through the side window in my living room, I am enjoying the bold oranges, yellows, and reds from my neighbor’s trees. Outside the front window, bits of color float down one at a time, skipping this way and that as if playing tag with the wind. The fall scenery reminds me that Thanksgiving will be here soon. I am thankful for the annual holiday that provides an opportunity to gather together and share expressions of our gratitude. But I am even more thankful that our gratefulness is not confined to that one day.

In a previous article, I wrote about Jesus’ example of thankfulness when he lived on earth. I recently expanded my study to look at thanks expressed by others in the Bible. Several things stood out to me.

The concept of thankfulness is found throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Forms of the word thank can be found over 300 times in the Bible [1], the frequency alone indicating its importance. Some translations of the Greek and Hebrew words are thankful, thanksgiving, thank offering, gratitude, and praise.

The first occurrence of the concept of thanksgiving appears early in Genesis, even though the words are not explicit. Cain had killed Abel and had gone “out from the LORD’s presence” (Genesis 4:16) and built a city. God gave Eve another son, Seth, to replace Able (Genesis 4:25). When Seth had a son named Enosh 105 years later (Genesis 5:6), “men began to call on the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4:26).

In the Bible, calling on the name of the LORD “speaks of deliberate, vocal, gathered worship.” This was “the first recorded corporate worship” [2], and it involved thanksgiving. “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalm 116:17). While Cain’s descendants were relying on themselves to build cities, Seth’s were declaring their dependence on and gratitude for their Sovereign God. [2]

The last occurrence of thanks is in a future heavenly scene of worship in Revelation. “¹⁶And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, ¹⁷saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign’” (Revelation 11:16-17). Thanks is being given to Jesus for who he is, the Eternal One, and because he is about to fulfill his promise to overthrow the kingdom of evil.

The majority of thanksgiving is to God for who he is and what he does. He is often thanked because he is good (1 Chronicles 16:34), righteous (Psalm 7:17), “the ruler of all things” (1 Chronicles 29:12-13), “the great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:2-3). He is thanked for the many things he does for his people, such as providing (Psalm 147:7-9), delivering from harm (2 Samuel 22:49-50), and healing (Luke 17:15-16). He gives us righteous laws (Psalm 119:62), he answers us (Psalm 118:21), he gives us strength and protection (Psalm 28:7).

We are to be thankful to God for people as well. In Paul’s letters to the various churches, he regularly thanked God for those he was writing to. He was grateful for how God was at work in their lives. “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

Paul also instructed the Church to be thankful for everyone, not just other believers. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone” (1 Timothy 2:1). In this letter to Timothy, he has just related how God’s grace saved him, “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:16), transforming a blasphemer and persecutor into a servant of the Lord. Because God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), we are to be thankful for everyone God has created—for God’s goodness to them and that in God’s mercy and grace, he has provided a way of salvation “that no one is excluded from.” [3]

We see that Paul’s thanksgiving for people was rooted in what God was doing in or through them.

It’s okay to thank people, too. I didn’t find many instances of this, but I didn’t read all 300+ verses, either. Paul wrote to the believers in Rome about him and all the Gentile believers being grateful to Priscilla and Aquila, his fellow workers in Christ Jesus. “They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them” (Romans 16:4). We are usually not out of order when we thank people for the good things they do.

However, we are given an example of perhaps inappropriate gratitude to a person. The Jews had failed in their plot to kill Paul. Now Tertullus, a lawyer, is about to bring false charges against Paul to the governor, Felix. But first, his opening remarks: “²We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. ³Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude” (Acts 24:2-3). All the things Tertullus was thanking Felix for were accurate, and I’m sure he was indeed grateful for the peace and reforms. But his motive for the glowing words was to persuade Felix to execute Paul. I doubt such “dishonest” gratitude is pleasing to God.

Thanksgiving is the place to begin. In Paul’s letters to the churches, we can see that. After his introduction, often the first expression from his heart was to tell his readers that he always thanked God for them. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world” (Romans 1:8).

It was customary to give thanks before a meal. Jesus modeled this when he fed the 4,000 (Matthew 15:36) and when he ate with his disciples (Luke 22:19). Paul gave thanks to God before he broke bread on a ship (Acts 27:35). I always smile when I remember a friend telling of how he thanked God for all his food at once when he brought it home from the grocery. I guess you can’t be too early in giving thanks for God’s provision.

Scripture suggests that thanksgiving is the entry point into God’s presence. The psalmist said, “Let us come before him with thanksgiving…” (Psalm 95:2). Come before means when we “stand before his face…in his very presence.” [3] We don’t get there without thanksgiving. The temple in Jerusalem illustrates this. The psalmist referred to the temple when he said, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4). God dwelled in the Holy of Holies. You couldn’t get there without going through the gate and then the courtyards. Although only the High Priest was permitted into the Holy of Holies at that time, we all have access to his Holy presence now through the blood of Jesus. But we still have to begin at the gate of the courtyard where we offer thanksgiving—recognizing all Jesus has done for us and expressing our thanks to Him.

Some time ago, I realized that nearly every time I begin talking with God, I start by thanking him for something. I don’t remember making a conscious effort to do that, and I’m sure it has developed gradually through the years. It comes without thinking, pouring out of a heart that grows more grateful to Jesus the deeper my relationship goes with him. And that leads to another observation.

Thanksgiving is meant to be a way of life, not an occasional offering. Paul says we should “always [be] giving thanks to God the Father for everything” (Ephesians 5:20). Everything refers to “all the blessings of the Christian, the whole good that comes to him from God.” [4]

“In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Whatever we bring before God, we are to offer it with thanksgiving.

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Thanks should be given for adversities as well as blessings because God is at work in all of it.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Giving thanks to God with every word we speak and every action we take is quite comprehensive.

The other day, I tried something different in my daily prayer time. I decided to not only begin with thanksgiving, but to pray for everything on my list solely by giving thanks. As an example, rather than ask God to do something in a person’s life, I thanked him for his love for that person, for things he had already done in their life, for the plans he had for them, and for what he was doing right now, being as specific as I could with the knowledge I had. I found that I can never run out of things to thank him for.

Thanksgiving pleases God. According to the Thessalonians verse above, living a life of thanksgiving “is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” That is what he wants from us. David knew that thanks was more desired by God than the animal sacrifices he required because it flowed from a grateful heart. “³⁰I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. ³¹This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs” (Psalm 69:30-31).

Ungratefulness is a sign of rebellion against God. “¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy” (2 Timothy 3:1-2). Paul also says that not giving thanks was part of man’s downfall that caused God to give them over to “the sinful desires of their hearts” (Romans 1:24). “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).

Here are my takeaways:

Thanksgiving is the first step into God’s presence, and ungratefulness is the first step away from him.

Thanksgiving should become like the air we breathe, flowing through us naturally. As air is to our physical life, thanksgiving is to our spiritual life.

Thanksgiving is primarily to God. Although we often thank others for their kindnesses, God is the ultimate source. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17).

Thanksgiving is all we have to offer God since everything already belongs to him. That’s why a thankful heart pleases him so. This is expressed beautifully in the song Gratitude.

Let us work toward living as Paul instructed us to, “overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:7).

[1] Topical Encyclopedia

[2] Bible Hub

[3] Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

[4] Expositor’s Greek Testament

Scripture quotations are from NIV.

Commentary notes are from Bible Hub. See Resources.

Feature photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash