Giving Thanks God’s Way
1Th 5:18 Give thanks [gratitude—actively grateful language to God as an act of worship] in all circumstances [daily, thoroughly, in every thing, in every way], for this is God’s will [choice, purpose, desire] for you in Christ Jesus.
We all like to focus on thankfulness this time of year. I did a word study in the original Greek from Strong’s Dictionary of New Testament Words on the verse above. Often a word may translated into English in various verses as the same word, such as “thanksgiving” but be different words in the original Greek that have a different emphasis or broader meaning than what English can convey.
From this word study, we can see that a focus on thankfulness should go far beyond one particular time of year. It is God’s will, purpose, and desire for us to be thankful. How much? Daily, thoroughly, in all situations and in every possible way! Already we can see much room for improvement for our level of thankfulness to come up to the will of God for us. However, I was extremely moved by the definition of “thanks” in this passage. It expresses that our attitude of thankfulness should be to such an extent that we are actively speaking out our gratitude to God in words of worship. How often are we so moved with gratitude to God that worship to Him pours out of our hearts? Does it happen daily, thoroughly, in every situation, and in every possible way? Let’s be challenged today by this Scripture to truly live in this spirit of thankfulness.
Increasing in Christ,
Alisa Linn
