EPHESIANS 5:17-21 – “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

THEME OF THE DAY: LIVING THANKFUL.  On a scale of one to ten with ten being perfectly, how would we rate ourselves in living a thankful life?  Not just giving thanks over meals, or singing songs of thanksgiving on the Lord’s Day, but living daily and throughout the day with the attitude and words of thanksgiving for the Lord Himself, and what He gives to us -temporally and physically, and eternally and spiritually.

Living thankful is a big deal for numerous reasons.  First it is a dominant theme throughout scripture. The word thanksgiving appears 38 times and the root word thanks a whopping 855 times!  For example, in Psalm 136, the first three verses start with the words Give thanks and the rest of the Psalm offers us reasons for giving God thanks.  And something that God gives so much attention should cause us to do likewise.

As for the command to give thanks, it also is repeated throughout the scripture 44 times.  We may never overstate the importance of obedience in the Christian life. Jesus makes obeying His Word the evidence of loving Him – “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). What we learn from this reason to give thanks is that it is not an emotion but an exercise of the will.  We give thanks out of obedience whether we feel like it or not.  Don’t misunderstand me. We do experience times of being overwhelmed with emotion out of love to God that prompts the giving of thanks but offering thanks is primarily an intentional act of the will.

A third reason for living a thankful life is the model we find in the Lord Jesus. Read the gospels and notice how often the Lord would give thanks to His Father.  Jesus is our example.  To follow Him points us to living thankful lives.

Today’s scripture points to still yet another reason to live thankful.  In writing to the Ephesian believers, the Apostle Paul exhorts them to be filled with the Spirit.  It is being filled with the Spirit that empowers Christian living and brings us into close fellowship with the Lord.  After the command to be filled, Paul provides the evidence by which we may know we are living such a life.  One such area that validates the Spirit-filled life is living thankful.

So, now that we have identified reasons to live thankful, how’s our evaluation now?  May the Lord help us to honor Him by lives consistently lived in the spirit of thanksgiving.

PRAYER: Father, make me mindful of all the reasons You give me to live thankful.

REFLECTION:  To live thankful before the Lord and for the Lord is a mark of a Spirit-filled life.