Daily Devotional By Desiringgod Ministry – John Piper Ministry 28 November 2024 | Topic: Christian Thankfulness: What It Is
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Christian Thankfulness: What It Is (and Isn’t)
Happy Thanksgiving Day — a national holiday for us in the States. We’re very grateful that you listen to the podcast. And no matter where you live, we are praying that you have a day full of Christ-centered thankfulness for all the blessings we enjoy in this life.
Thanksgiving is an essential daily practice for us all. And it’s evidence of our soul’s well-being. As Spurgeon said, “Thanksgiving is one of the best ways to keep yourselves in spiritual health.” Amen. Thanksgiving is spiritual cardio. To lose gratitude is to lose spiritual vibrance. So, when it comes to this Thanksgiving Day, it’s no small holiday for the Christian. Pastor John, use this day to invest a few minutes to help us refocus on what the Bible says here by leading us in a Thanksgiving Day meditation.
Let’s take a moment and ponder what the experience of thankfulness actually is. I’m going to limit myself to Christian thankfulness, so I’m not talking about Hitler’s thankfulness that his liquidation techniques have become more efficient. That kind of thankfulness is wicked. There is wicked thankfulness. Nor am I talking about a kind of good thankfulness the way most people celebrate Thanksgiving — who don’t have any relationship with God at all but feel that they are the beneficiary of some kind of benevolence and usually attribute it to other people. I’m talking about Christian thankfulness, the kind that God is very pleased with.
Defining Christian Thankfulness
Now, what is it? It’s a feeling, an emotion and affection in the heart, that rises spontaneously in response to receiving something that will increase our enjoyment of Christ. That’s my definition of Christian thankfulness. A couple of comments about that definition.
A spontaneous emotion — so, I’m distinguishing thankfulness from saying the words “thank you.” You can teach a child to say “thank you” to his grandma for a gift he does not want. There’s no spontaneous thankfulness welling up in this child’s heart, because he didn’t want those black socks. So, no spontaneous emotion rose up in the child’s heart when he got this gift that he didn’t want. Saying “thank you” is not the same as being thankful. Being thankful is not a decision. Saying “thank you” is a decision. Being thankful is not a decision. It is a spontaneous heart response to the perception of someone giving you something that’s good for you.
“Christian thankfulness is an emotion that rises in response to receiving something that will increase our enjoyment of Christ.”
What makes the spontaneous response of the heart Christian is that it has the effect of increasing our enjoyment of Jesus. This is partly owing to the fact that we see Jesus as the source ultimately behind the gift, and we fully anticipate that the goodness of the gift will cause us to know him more and love him better. The gift may be an ice-cream cone and the gift may be the salvation of your soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. In either case, what makes the heart response of thankfulness Christian is that it comes from Christ and leads to the enjoyment of Christ. If ice-cream cones don’t make you know and love Christ better, they’re wasted on you.
All things are from him and through him and to him or for him (Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16). Christians are Christians all the way down, from salvation to Dairy Queen Butterfinger Blizzards and all the blessings above and below, which also implies that thankfulness, while it may have its tears — it regularly has its tears — is a happy emotion. When it comes, we’re glad that it comes. It is a gratifying experience. In fact, the human soul — let this sink in — is deeply made for this experience and, therefore, when it comes, we feel like we have become human as we ought — humbly receptive and sweetly thankful.
Meditating on the Power of Thanksgiving
Now, to help us revel in this happy experience on Thanksgiving, think with me about these few observations.
1. Thankfulness is a sweetly humble experience. It is, in a sense, the very opposite of pride: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if [it were not a gift]?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). In other words, thankfulness, by its very nature, pushes boasting out of the human heart. You can’t, at the same time, be a brash, swaggering, boastful, cool, self-sufficient person and a thankful person. You can’t. Not in the same heart.
That’s really important in our day, it seems to me, because in video after video — for all I can tell by the advertisements that slip in while I’m watching some documentary or something else — brash, swaggering, boastful, arrogant, self-sufficient, sassy heroes and heroines are evidently quite popular. Well, they’re not popular with God because God delights in thankfulness. Picture some sassy, swaggering heroine or hero saying with humility to God or to a friend, “I am so thankful for your kindness to me.” No, it won’t work, because thankfulness necessarily implies humility and dependence and the finding of our happiness in receiving some good that another did for us that goes beyond what we deserve. It is the opposite of pride and swagger.
2. Consider that this is why thankfulness is purifying, especially to our mouths: “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). It’s amazing that Paul would contrast crude joking with thankfulness. It’s because emotionally they just don’t go together. I mean, try to imagine it. Why do people with crude, foul mouths lace their talk with four-letter words? Why do they do that? One of Paul’s answers is that their hearts are not brimming with humble, happy thankfulness, especially to God. Nobody uses four-letter words or a crude phrase to express heartfelt, humble thankfulness.
3. Consider how everything that we have is a gift. If we know that we are sinners, then everything we have is an undeserved gift. Not just a few things here and there — everything. “[God] gives . . . life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). “What do you have,” Paul asks, “that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). And the answer is nothing.
Which means that thankfulness for the Christian who lives in the light of this truth is utterly pervasive in all of life. This is the beat of his emotional heart. This is the air we breathe. This is the flavor of every experience. God is sovereign. God is wise, God is good. God turns everything for the good of his children. Thankfulness, for the Christian, is part of every experience. That’s what 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says: “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Ephesians 5:20 takes it further: “[Give] thanks . . . for everything.” When we are walking in the light of the truth, no emotion is more common in the Christian heart than happy thankfulness.
4. Finally, consider the vastness of the benefits that Christians have. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). All things! “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ” (Philippians 4:19). “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). It is only a matter of time, Christian, until you inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Be patient, be faithful, and be thankful in everything all the time. We were made for this happy emotion.
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