Colossians 3:17 - And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The above scripture is a high call. It is hard to be thankful all the time. Think about your daily life, do your really give thanks with every thing you say and all that you do in your daily life? The honest answer is NO you do not, yet that is exactly what is commanded in the above scripture.
Most of us complain at some point everyday about something in our life. We complain about our job, our home, our fiances, our families, our friends, our co-workers, our churches, our favorite sport teams, and even at times God and how He is treating us at the moment. Complaining is something of a minor sport within the church today. After we finish complaining about our lives, we begin complaining about the lives of other members in the body, and about other churches, other ministries, and even about God calling us to work in the body. We complain about our churches not growing, but we do nothing to minister to anyone. We complain about nothing happening in our churches, but we do nothing new and different ourselves to change that trend.
I am not saying that we do not have trying times, and that our lives are not stressful at times, but most of us complain about more things then we thank God for. This contradicts the Biblical command for us to do everything in the same way that Jesus would. At this point we are faced with the concept of WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?), and thinking about how Jesus would handle the things that occur or exist in our daily lives.
The answer to the WWJD question is usually quite simple, though how to live it out is usually difficult The problem we have is knowing the answer or solution but not being willing do the work to solve the problem correctly. We know that Jesus’s action or reaction would honor the Father, bless and serve those around Him, and assure everyone that He was more concerned about them and their needs then Himself and His needs. This means that our actions should contain all of the same qualities and should make our devotion and thankfulness to God visible to all. That is a high standard, and one that no human can attain, but that does not mean that the call is decreased.
Most Christians probably remember to thank God for certain things in their life, maybe a promotion, a raise, a answered prayer, a medical recovery, etc, but few of us remember to thank God for our daily blessings that allow us to live and enjoy our life. Do you thank God daily for your health, your family, your friends, your home, your job, your pets, etc? Most of us forget to see day to day things in our life as blessings. They really are blessings as they are the things that allow us to continue living and maturing. God blesses us abundantly everyday, weather the blessings are huge to us or not, we are being blessed. The problem with us is that we become so use to everyday blessings that we forget to be thankful for them.
I challenge you to sit down and list out all the good things in your life, all the blessings, and then on another list put down all the things that are bad or wrong with your life. I guarantee the first list will be significantly longer then the second if you are honest with yourself and about your life.
Many times we become so caught up in small and minor problems that we fail to even see the greater good in our lives. Think back to the last time you had a major problem, and ask yourself was it really that major or was it just major to you at that time? In hindsight, most of our problems are much smaller then we originally thought. When we look back at their solutions we find that they were rarely as significant as we thought at the time.
I remember hearing a saying about a pebble that is held up to your eye. When you hold it near your face it consumes all your vision, and appear the size of a boulder. However, when you drop it you realize how small it is and how easy it is for you to step over. The strength and ability to do this allows you to do a better job telling the world about how exceptionally blessed you are and how much is great in your life. If you only focus on the problems you will never be able to properly tell the world about how blessed and cared for you are by God, because your life is consumed by the problems.
God’s call for you is to take His love and His compassion to the world. Part of doing that is living in a way that shows just how blessed you are by God and just how thankful you are for it. Tell the world how wonderful your life is, not how bad it is. Do that, and you will be seen as a exceptional person. People will long to be more like you. They will want to learn why you are so satisfied. This type of life will open up opportunities for you to share just how special God is to you and just how special you are too God.
God has given you much, and you have much to share with the world. Live in such a way that everyone around you is being blessed by your presence, not depressed by your existence. God calls you to speak and act in such a way that you are both blessing the world, and honoring God, with everything you do and say. By doing this you will not be blessed by having more influence and respect in the world. You will also be blessed more abundantly by God for being a true and right subject in His Kingdom. He has done so much for you. All He is asking you to do is to let your speech and actions tell the world about it. That is not a lot to ask when you realize that you are not doing it alone, but you are partnered with the creator of the universe and the redeemer of the world.
Your life is special. You are being specially blessed by God, even if it is not in the ways you want. The key to being the Christian that God is calling us all to be is to accept God’s blessings as He gives them, out of love, and then to show that same love to a lost and hurting world. You will fail at this many times, but over time you will have more successes then failures if you learn to be just as thankful for the small, mundane and everyday blessings as you are for the big and special blessings that overwhelm your world and change your life forever.
