Be Thankful And Give Thanks

‘Battlefield Caravan Park’ near Inveraray, Loch Fyne, November 2021

Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].
[1 Thessalonians 5:18 AMPC]

I chose the Amplified Version of Thessalonians 5:18 here because it says be thankful and give thanks. It emphasises both aspects of giving thanks — the words and, more importantly, the heart. To give thanks we must also be thankful. I can say “Thank You, Lord,” but if I am gritting my teeth as I say it, then I be not thankful at all. It requires a change of heart, and the answer to the change is the ‘ever and always’ one — prayer.

In our translation here we are told that this thankfulness is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus. And the bracketed qualifying statement tells us that Christ is the Revealer and Mediator of the will of God. Unless we are in Christ Jesus — in the Holy Spirit — then we are nowhere and our thanksgiving is hollow and without meaning. Verse 19 tells us “Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit;” and quenching the Holy Spirit is what looking to ourselves and our own disquiet is doing, but we can avoid this quenching of the Spirit, and be in the right spirit to be thankful, if we heed the preceding verse — verse 17 — “Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly];” Prayer comes before being thankful, because it brings us into relationship with Christ.

Paul recognised God’s order in our relationship with Christ, and that order always involves prayer, because prayer is our direct link to Him. Without that communication, there is no relationship. Look at the sevenfold order that Paul states at the conclusion of 1 Thessalonians 5:

• Rejoice always,
• pray without ceasing,
• in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
• Do not quench the Spirit.
• Do not despise prophecies.
• Test all things; hold fast what is good.
• Abstain from every form of evil.

We shall look at these verses in a little more detail in our next meditation.

We also considered this verse from 1 Thessalonians in the meditation ‘In Everything Give Thanks’ from October 2020. Click on the title if you wish to visit that meditation.

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A HOLY CONDITION: Oswald Chambers on Joy
Strength In The Lord

The people who have plenty of time for you are those who have been through suffering, but now seem full of joy.
If a man has not been through suffering he will snub you unless you share his interests, he is no more concerned about you than the desert sand; but those who have been through things are not now taken up with their own sorrows, they are being made broken bread and poured-out wine for others.
You can always be sure of the man who has been through suffering, but never of the man who has not.
[from ‘Baffled To Fight Better’, also known as ‘Our Ultimate Refuge’]

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“Thank You, Lord” — Don Moen

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‘Meditate on these things…’

2 THESSALONIANS 2:13-15 NKJV
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.