Thankfulness

It's Monday morning, which means it's time to start counting!

At church yesterday our Pastor spoke on Ephesians 5:19-20 (emphasis mine):

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

His words were so encouraging that I decided to post some excerpts here.

Is it your practice to give thanks constantly? Through Christ, to Him and to God the Father? This is one of the greatest things in the Christian life. These two verses and the climax of them, the exhortation to thankfulness, these two verses are worth more to you and I than all the modern counselling books put together. All of them, containing so much nonsense — as well as many obvious and edifying things but so much nonsense. 

Thank [God] throughout the day. The practice of praising and thanking God in your heart throughout the day is so important to believers. In every need, confronting every activity, constantly thankful.

Thank Him for your troubles, praise and thank Him for your troubles; that in His eternal providence He has seen fit to honour you with troubles. That your Lord feels that you are strong enough or faithful enough to turn to Him and to gain comfort in solace to see you through all your troubles. And thank His wisdom because you needed those troubles — you were becoming too heady or too light or too cold. And you needed to throw yourself upon Him and to lean on Him.

If you thank God constantly and repeatedly, it is the greatest imaginable antidote to sin. You cannot easily succumb to temptation when you are feelingfully thanking God for His blessing and His goodness and feeling your indebtedness to Him. It's the great antidote to faithlessness. It builds faith. It's the antidote to coldness of heart. It's the antidote to covetousness. Wanting, wanting, wanting — how can I when I'm giving thanks to God for so many things. It's the antidote to pride because even as I thank God sincerely I realise I owe everything to Him. It deepens my love to thank Him. It imparts perspective in my life so that my troubles shrink and my privileges grow in my estimation. 

It's apparent to others — a thankful Christian is not a heavy, morose, complaining, ill-tempered Christian. So our demeanour as the Lord's people is much more apparent to others when we're thankful, thanksgiving Christians. I'm sure it makes us calm as people, and it tames our tempers (if that's our trouble) ...   

Obviously I would always advocate professional help for serious depression. But for the blues (and other spiritual ailments) that most of us are susceptible to, these are two great verses to meditate and act on. If you don't regularly give thanks to God for every blessing - big or small - in your life, I encourage you to start now. Write it, type it, scribble it on a napkin ... or just say it. It is the best soul-medicine I have ever experienced. Your problems don't disappear, but your perspective changes - and with this comes joy and peace.