Thankfulness is a great topic for your holiday dinner table or something we express when someone gives us a gift. But true, biblical gratitude is altogether different from these. It’s a command, a way of life, how we enter God’s presence, and our part in maintaining faith through hardship. It’s more important than we can imagine.
Gratitude is one of the primary reasons Christians give. Right now, you can probably name a happy, generous person, someone whose life exhibits the fruit of a constant commitment to thankfulness.
But others may have not have realized yet that thanksgiving – like forgiveness or prayer – is not optional for a Christian. It’s commanded because it’s essential to our well-being. Let’s take a look at a few stories in the Bible that highlight this.
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Gratitude and the kingdom come
Jesus thanked the Father often. Before feeding the 5,000, before he raised Lazarus from the dead, before he ate his last meal with his disciples. He thanked God for listening to him, for revealing truth, for providing a meal he was about to share. Interestingly, Jesus often thanked God before something big happened.
And he called out ingratitude when it wasn’t evidently missing in the lives of those who came to him.
In Luke 17, as religious leaders were plotting to put him to death, Jesus withdrew to the wilderness along the border of Galilee and Samaria – a place with Jews on one side and Samaritans on the other, but where his adversaries wouldn’t find him. As he entered a city there, 10 lepers met him.
It wasn’t surprising they were there, outside of the city they couldn’t enter, away from the temple where they couldn’t worship, apart from everyone and alone. Their disfigurement and the scaly blemishes on their skin were treated like a highly contagious, incurable curse that separated them from all others for life.
It’s no wonder 10 of them made their way to the Healer, that they stood back, crying out, “Master, have mercy on us!”
With zero fanfare, Jesus directed them to do what the law required: “Go show yourself to the priests.” If a person was healed of leprosy, a priest would take the required steps, make sacrifices and conduct the horrible, messy process to “purify” the one healed from uncleanliness.
All 10 lepers went away. All 10 were healed before they even got to the priests. Their disease cured, they could touch their loved ones again, walk through cities without shame, finally … finally … worship God in the temple and celebrate the feasts. How long had it been?
Jesus’ gift was certainly the best one they’d ever been given. But nine of them never returned. Only one came back, a Samaritan, the only one in the group who’d never been permitted in the temple and never would be. Yet he rejoiced loudly, threw himself on the ground, face at Jesus’ feet, declaring his thankfulness.
Jesus turned to the Pharisees who’d been asking him when the kingdom was coming. “Look!” he said. Here it was, in the form of the healthy, grateful man right there in front of them.
- Has God done something for you so big that you could keep returning to him with thanksgiving and praise for the rest of your life? Is there anything you want to go back to him and say, “Thank you” for today? If so, consider doing it right now.
The thankful king after God’s own heart
In our adversity, even when it’s self-inflicted, God is still good, and he heals and restores us to himself. King David, the “man after God’s own heart,” had learned this over a long life with God.
His dying wish was to build a house for God. And even though God denied that wish, still David found joy – through giving and thanksgiving. He donated all of the royal resources to the building of the temple (though he would never see it) (1 Chronicles 29). Then, in his joy, he gave from his personal resources, in abundance. And he invited his nation’s leaders to join him.
The Hebrew text from 1 Chronicles 29 says those leaders gave willingly, “with perfect heart,” inspiring everyone present to an unprecedented outpouring of thanksgiving and generosity. This corporate act was followed by a spontaneous, worshipful celebration. And the wealthiest man to ever live said this:
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
– 1 Chronicles 29:11-13
The next day, they made sacrifices to God, held a feast, and rejoiced some more in the presence of the Lord. Soon after this, David’s life ended – a long life, characterized by wealth and much honor, and succeeded by a son who would fulfill his dying wish.
- Can you picture your life ending this well, despite its shortcomings? None of us will ever be so great as the forefather of the Messiah. But can we, despite our failures (David experienced many), envision and pursue a legacy this great – not the amassing of money, but the willingness to let it go and do anything God asks?
Thanksgiving in heaven
If we started thanking God for the things the Bible tells us he does for us in this present age, we might not be able to cover them all in this lifetime. If we really thought about all he has done for us, it could occupy our minds for the rest of our lives. But doing so would only be practice for what Jesus has promised us is coming.
The kingdom coming
Our whole hope is in heaven and the return of the King who is coming back to take us home.
The apostle Paul recognized this and thanked God for the hope of heaven laid up for those who love the Lord: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you … because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:3-5).
Revelation 19 describes Christ’s return. His reign will last forever, but first comes a wedding. The One who is Faithful and True, the Word of God, on whose robe and thigh is written, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” will come for his bride (us!).
Sin will be conquered, and the one who steals, kills, and destroys will never harm us again.
We’ll join the angels in thankful songs and experience literal heaven on earth – life in the presence of the One who loves us most. The curse of original sin will be reversed, every tear wiped away, and all of eternity will be ahead us (Revelation 22) – to live in God’s presence experiencing the pleasures of his right hand forever. Then, there will be a million expressions of gratitude – and praise unending. Most of us don’t spend enough time thinking about heaven, but how much might it do to instill gratitude – and hope – in our hearts! And how much might our practice of gratitude here better prepare us our home in eternity?
Jesus promised he will return soon, and every word of thanks we give on this earth will be remembered in heaven. This is our future, our homecoming, the moment Christians claim to be waiting for. Let us give thanks without ceasing the day after the holiday and all the days after that so we will be well-practiced for his return.
What awaits us is immeasurably more than we can imagine. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28).
- What’s your story of thankfulness? What gratitude lies behind your giving? Use this exercise to prepare to share your story with your friends and family.
