Three elements of sincere thankfulness …

A Facebook friend recently stated (I’m assuming in jest) that Thanksgiving is a day, but Christmas is a season, and that’s a hill she would die on!

I hope not, because while Thanksgiving may be a specific holiday on our calendars, as Christians we’re to be thankful people.

Let’s clarify that a step further — to be a “thankful people” doesn’t mean to have a moment for which we thought about something we’re thankful for, felt the emotions of thankfulness, and then expressed that thankfulness, we’re to be people who are thankful.

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus,” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Philippians 4:6 (NIV).

What is it that makes the children of God thankful people?

“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts,” Colossians 3:15-16.

If we obey this command, truly letting “… the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives …” how could we not be thankful?

We confuse that level of “thankfulness” with the common idea of thankfulness the world expresses. The type of thankfulness bandied around is just a flittering thought or perhaps an actual emotion; you might do something with it, or it might just flitter through as a brief feeling that passes nearly as quickly as it arises.

“But that’s a feeling of gratitude!” some would argue.

But it’s not the fullness of thankfulness.

There are three elements to really being thankful:

1. It starts with a fact. For example, when you let the message of Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives, you cannot not be thankful. To understand the degree of sacrifice, love, mercy, and grace offered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as well as His current reign, His promised return, and His promise to be with us until His physical return, you simply can’t be ungrateful unless you reject that wonderful message of truth.

So you start with a fact.

It could be over something simple — your spouse brought you a cup of coffee first thing this morning; for that fact, that reality, you’re thankful!

2. Feel the emotion about the fact. Let your heart be moved! Feel the feeling that goes with the fact that Jesus lived, died, and was raised from the dead for your redemption.

Feel the fact that your spouse was expressing love in a simple way by bringing you a cup of coffee.

3. Expression. Genuine thanksgiving from a reality or fact exceeds the emotion felt and must find a form of expression. For Jesus, it’s in obeying Him like this: “Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me,'” Luke 9:23 or “If you love me, obey my commandments,” John 14:15.

Your spouse brings you a steaming hot cup of coffee in your favorite mug (a fact); you feel loved by this act (an emotion); and because you’re thankful, you say “Thank you!” (an expression of your thankfulness).

We human beings can fail at being thankful people because (1) we often miss the reasons around us (facts, realities) for being thankful, and/or (2) think feeling the emotion satisfies “being thankful,” and (3) don’t exercise the effort to express our thankfulness.

But if we never get to the point of expression, just how thankful are we really?

The expression of thankfulness doesn’t always have to be something elaborate, just something heartfelt, kind of like how the man in this story demonstrates he is a thankful person (from Record of Christian Work, Volume 23, by Alexander McConnell, William Revell Moody, Arthur Percy Fitt):

When Dr. Broadus was a boy in a little town, he was converted to Christ. He had been attending some meetings, and he went to one of his playmates, Sandy Jones, a red-haired, awkward chap, the next day and said to him: “I wish you would be a Christian. Won’t you?”

And Sandy said, “Well, I don’t know, perhaps I will.” And sure enough, after a little while, one night in the little church, Sandy Jones accepted God. Straightway he stalked across that little meeting house, held out his hand and said, “I thank you, John, I thank you, John.”

Dr. Broadus went out from that little town and became a great scholar, a great exegete, a great theological president. Every summer when he went home to that little town, and he hardly missed a season, I am told, this awkward, red-haired old farmer, in his plain clothes, with red sand on his boots, would come up, stick out his great bony hand and say: “Howdy, John. Thank you, John, thank you, John. I never forget, John.”

When Dr. Broadus died, his family around him, he said: “I rather think the sound sweetest to my ears in Heaven, next to the welcome of Him Whom having not seen I have loved and tried to serve, will be the welcome of Sandy Jones, as he will thrust out his great hand and say: ‘Howdy, John. Thank you, John.'”

You know when someone is sincerely expressing thankfulness like the awkward, red-haired farmer, Sandy Jones. But Sandy didn’t just have a fleeting emotion of gratitude, he became thankful and was consistent in expressing that thankfulness.

Of all the human beings on the planet, the children of God have every reason to be thankful people.

Scotty