We had another great night Tuesday (as we always do) as Caleb led our discussion, focusing on giving thanks and honor to God for who He is and who He is in our lives. We started in Revelation 4:9, which talks about the beasts in heaven that give honor and thanks to God. They never cease to call out the glory of God, and it says that "whenever" they do (which it just stated is all the time) the saints around God's throne join in with their own praise. Next we looked into Romans 13:7, which talks about giving honor to whom honor is due. And exactly who is more worthy of honor than God? He's the reason why we sing songs about all honor being due Him. (Wow, who'd've thought praise & worship songs were actually things we could do, as well as sing about?)
We also looked at Psalm 50:23. It says that those who praise God also glorify Him, and as a result they will by shown "the salvation of God". Our praise, honor, and thanks is directly tied to our relationship with God. Which really makes complete sense, because even on earth it's really hard to be close to people who do not show any gratitude for you being in their lives. But when people express their gratefulness and appreciation for you being you, you definitely want to do more with and for them. That's probably a good reason why Psalm 97:12 says to "rejoice in the Lord and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness."
Kevin pointed out Philippians 4:6-7, which shows that thankfulness to God for Him answering your request is the precursor that having the peace of God in your life. Along with rejoicing in the Lord (vs. 4), these two activities are specific aspects of experiencing the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17). Seana noted that they also are aspects of worship of God, which once again goes to show that worship of God draws us closer to Him and closer to all the things that come with Him (which, by the way, is everything -- see Matthew 6:33). We realized again that when you develop a true, healthy relationship with someone you appreciate and care about who they are, and not just what they do for you. The more we thank God for who He is in our lives, the more we focus on our relationship with Him, and the more it grows and brings everything else to us along with it.
There were alot of other great points during the discussion -- what was your favorite point? Or what have you noticed now that you didn't think about before? The discussion can keep going! Sound off below!
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July 13 - Kynetic @ 7:00 p.m. in Holy Grounds Cafe
July 24 - Kynetic's Thanksgiving in July @ 7:00 p.m. in Student Center
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July 24 - Kynetic's Thanksgiving in July @ 7:00 p.m. in Student Center
July 27 - Kynetic @ 7:00 p.m. in Holy Grounds Cafe
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Ever since Tues. night, I’ve been working on what I would say. I feel Kevin has challenged me by calling me out as he did so I have to rise to the occasion (I am so thankful there’s not a word limit on these things). So Kevin, this one’s for you. I want to start by saying what a great job Caleb did. The topic of giving thanks to God shouldn’t be something that we only discuss around the holiday. We have things to thank God for each day therefore we should always have an attitude of gratitude.
While driving home, I was replaying the discussion in my mind, thinking of what I could contribute. I then thought of the story of the ten lepers. All of these men had a disease that caused them to be separated from their families and essentially their lives. At the Backyard Bible Club I helped with, this was the basis for our lesson the first night. All of the leaders stuck red dots on the kids and then told them they had leprosy. We then sent them away from the “village” where they had to stand and yell, “unclean,” to warn us of their condition (it may sound bad but they really enjoyed it). Once they were “healed” they were supposed to run back to the village and act as though the lepers might have. They jumped up and down and were so happy to return to their lives. Here’s the key to the story. All ten men were healed but yet only one took the time to go back and thank Jesus for the miraculous gift he’d be given. Not only did the man return to thank Jesus, Luke says the man fell down before Jesus, so thankful for his healing. “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.” The Amplified says the man thanked Jesus over and over. I also want to add that Jesus was surprised to only see one man return instead of all ten. I think there are times (if not all) when God expects us to express thankfulness, as in this case. Once we say show our gratitude, it’s as Caleb said; after God knows we’re appreciative of what He’s done, He’ll want to bless us again.
I think it’s interesting to note how different people expressed their thankfulness to God in the Bible. David danced before the Lord, not to mention writing the entire book of Psalms (and yet God is just as pleased when we can utter a “thank you” – talk about an even playing field). There’s also the woman in Luke 7:37 who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Even though it’s not stated that she was thankful, the notes in my margin say her act was spurred by a need for forgiveness. Think about it like this: wouldn’t you wash Jesus’ feet and kiss them if you were forgiven by God Himself? Wouldn’t you be so thankful upon hearing Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven,” that you’d show that gratitude in any way possible? In this case, a woman washed His feet.
There are two verses in Psalm that I ran across and thought appropriate. The first is 28:7: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.” The other verse is 34:1-2: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.” While we thank God for what we do have, sometimes we have to be thankful for things we don’t have; we’re using our faith to believe that we already have them and are thanking God for answering us. I feel this is so important for our age group because we’re in that transition between school to a career or from one career to another. Our confession may be, “Lord I thank You for a new job” or “I thank You for the money for _____________” or “I thank You for favor with my professors,” etc.
I was listening to a buddy of mine (Chip’s not the only one with buddy stories) the other day (aka Joel Osteen – we’re super tight) and his message was on encouraging yourself. He said we can’t rely on others to build us up (though we can certainly benefit from that) but have to do it ourselves. He said if you feel you have nothing to thank God for, make a list of all He’s done for you in the past and thank Him for that. Once we continue to thank God for different things, it becomes natural and we then find ourselves thanking Him for everything. I think thankfulness can be directly tied to our faith because when we thank God for things we’re believing Him for, that’s an expression of our faith in Him. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it’s impossible to please God so not only do we please Him when we thank Him but when we exercise our faith. I’m going back a few years, but there’s a song called “Give Thanks” that popped into my head when I was writing this and it’s taken from one of the Psalms and tells us exactly how we should give thanks: give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His Son…” If nothing else, we can thank God for the gift of His Son and our promise of heaven.
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