Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Our speech is a great revealer of what is in our hearts. It is from the abundance of the heart, that the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:33-37). You may be able to fake it for a while, but sooner or later what is in your heart will come out when you speak.
Jesus said, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Matt. 15:8) We can say we are thankful, but our attitude and action will give us away. The Message Bible says it so well, “It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words.” (Matt. 12:37). If we are truly thankful in our hearts it will be reflected in how we live. Our thanksgiving will become thanks-living.
Thanks-living is about attitude. We have heard it said, “Attitude determines altitude.” I believe that is true in our spiritual and natural life. I know some gifted and talented people who seem to stay perpetually grounded and go nowhere simply because they have rotten attitudes.
The Bible is full of people who lived a life of thanks-living. This attitude helped David endure years on the run, sleeping in caves and the wilderness, while being hunted like an animal to be slaughtered by Saul. Instead of becoming a victim or an old sour puss David allowed God to use all this to make him into one of the greatest kings to ever walk the earth.
Thanks-living is not living in denial. It is not the same as denying the pain of a situation or pretending that everything is fine when it really is not. Thanks-living is being able to be thankful in spite of our circumstances because we choose to look at our life and circumstances through the filter of God’s love and goodness. “In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess. 5:18)
Thanks-living is about how we treat other people. David wrote, “My heart is glad and my glory rejoices.” (Ps. 16:9) Yet Peter quotes the same verse with a twist to it. “My heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad” (Acts 2:25). Our tongue, what we say, is our glory or in a negative sense our downfall. The word glory literally means weight, honor. It means to honor, to give honor and to impart value. That is what our words are for.
We are to establish, nurture and protect relationships with our words. “A word spoken in season, how good it is.” (Prov. 15:23) “A healing tongue is a tree of life.” (Prov. 15:4) “Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what is good for edifying that it might impart grace.” (Eph. 4:29) “Speaking the truth in love.” (Eph. 4:15). That is what thanks-living is suppose to look like.
Thanks-living is also about receiving and giving. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) A life of thanks-living revolves around what we have received. Being daily conscious of all Christ has already given us, focusing on what God is doing rather what He is not doing will cause our hearts to over-flow with generosity.
Ann Voskamp captures this so well.
“Thanksgiving only becomes thanks-living when joy in the blessings given from above — overflows into the blessings given all around.”
“Thanksgiving only becomes thanks-living when the thanks for His vertical, coming-down grace — is expressed as a horizontal, reaching-out grace.”
“Thanksgiving only becomes thanks-living — when thanksgiving to God overflows into a joy of giving.”
May our thanksgiving truly become thanks-living.
Many Blessings, BW