“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 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.” – Colossians 3:16-17
This past weekend, I read through these verses and the words that kept coming back to my mind were “with gratitude in your hearts.” They stuck out to me… likely because we were gearing up to celebrate Thanksgiving with some family.
Because the phrase “with gratitude in your hearts” kept playing through my mind, I quickly looked up the original translation of the phrase, and discovered that the word “gratitude” in this context takes it’s root from the Greek word “charis”… which in English we know as “grace” - resulting in our initial phrase being defined as “the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace.”
This Thanksgiving may look very different for many of us this year (ie: pandemic / restrictions to gatherings). And while it can be easy to focus on how things may be different, or not how we want them to be… it’s so very important to recognize and speak out all that we are thankful for.
This “spiritual condition” of gratitude is a heart issue. As Jesus followers, we remain steadfast to always have a reason to give thanks… and that all comes back to Him and what He did for each of us on the cross. Out of the outpouring of our heart, we can give thanks! And let us not forget, thanksgiving is best expressed with action. Whether in words or deeds…. So today, let’s use our words and our actions to express the gratitude in our hearts as a current of worship flowing back to God.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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