Gratitude

September 15, 2018

" Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ " (Ephesians 5:20
) . We start with this verse because it lays out the importance of gratitude AND the degree of gratitude we should have ! What does it say ? Always and for all things ! This includes all things physical and spiritual. This verse refers mostly to all that God has done for us through the work of His Son ! But not limited to that because earlier in that paragraph Paul is talking about things of the body and of the Spirit.

In Romans 7 : 24-25 " O wretched man that I am ! Who will deliver me from this body of death ? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord. " This whole paragraph Paul is talking about the battle of sin verses good in this physical body. This is the conclusion of the paragraph and the question and answer he is seeking. He concludes that the physical body is a body of death and sin  and longs to be delivered from it ! The question is WHO will deliver him from this sinful body . He answers it with verse 25. God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefor, we should always acknowledge that we live in a fallen world and need God just to survive . And be eternally grateful to God through His Son who did the work necessary on the cross to deliver us from our sinful bodies to God !

" Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; "  Here we see that we should be thankful FOR prayer but also to be thankful IN prayer. How do you show thanks in prayer ? Many ways but one would be to give praise to God. In your praise will come the thanks ! How great is it that we have the ability to actually talk with the God of the universe ? He has given us this tool to make our request known to Him, to build a relationship with Him, and to praise and worship Him among many other reasons. The gift of prayer is given only to the believer. This we should be grateful for. That is why we should be grateful in all things all the time.