Give
Thanks
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your
diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast
love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like
the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5
Psalm 103 is a psalm of
thanksgiving. The reason why giving thanks and being thankful is so important
is because it might be the single most distinctive characteristic of being a
Christian. This is most plausible when we look at the way the atheist is
described in Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not
honor him as God or give thanks to him. Thus, if the
refusal to give thanks to God marks the atheist, giving thanks ought to mark
the believer.
And for good reason. The
believer, afterall, has good reason to give thanks to God. The believer has
good reason and many reasons to give thanks to God. This seems simple enough,
doesn’t it? Believers should be thankful. Not too much resistance there. Yet,
most believers would admit that grumbling, complaining, worry, anger, doubt,
anxiety, bitterness, apathy, to name a few, creep in and choke out
thankfulness. What should a believer do to be more characterized by
thankfulness and less like this list? Here are two responses:
First, being thankful means
giving thanks, which means it is up to you to be thankful. You are not a
passive recipient of thankfulness. Rather, you are active in pursuing it by
faith. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit empowering you to walk
by faith, you have God’s Word to speak truth to you, and you have God’s Son
that gave his life for you so that you can be a child of God. You have everything
you need to be a thankful person.
Second, being thankful means you
must preach the truth to your soul. In Psalm 103 David preaches to his soul (Bless
the LORD, O my soul). He doesn’t wait until he feels thankful. By faith, he
presses the truth into his mind. Living by faith and being thankful is
primarily not a feeling but the will to live in accordance with what is true.
David models what this looks like. He preaches to his own heart. He rouses his
emotions to the memory of God’s work. He refuses to be controlled by what he
feels, he insists on living according to God’s love.
That we would be thankful people, Pastor Kevin
Comments
Post a Comment