Living a Thankful Life

Thankfulness is a characteristic Christians must have. We must be perpetually thankful; consistently grateful. Moreover, we ought to be thankful even in amid trials. James, the half-brother of Jesus, goes as far to say we should “count it all joy” (James 1:2) when we trudge through trials.

And yet, it’s sometimes excruciatingly difficult to be thankful these days. We are surrounded by men and women alike who, for lack of a better word, are irritable. They groan, whine, and grumble about the little things. And, to our demise, we go along for the ride on several occasions. We join in on the grumpfest.

So, it’s countercultural to be constantly thankful these days. Most people, if not all, always have something to complain about, whether it’s a food service, their job, or something in between. But it’s incumbent on Christians to look around at all the griping and choose to be thankful—because we are God’s (Eph. 2:10).

Thankfulness is an attitude we must be intentional about. It doesn’t come easy a lot of the time because we’re sinners who love to complain, who desire to be cynical, who feast on grouchiness (at least some do). A good exercise in being thankful is to remember, for starters, five reasons we ought to be thankful.

Thankful for Life

Every breath we take is a gift from God. From our first cry as an infant to our final breath, all of life is given from the gracious hands of our Father.

When playing golf, my dad was my biggest coach and fan. (Sometimes I didn’t want his coaching!) I knew he wanted me to succeed. But sometimes I would throw temper tantrums on the golf course and would have a sorry attitude the rest of the day. When the timing was right, he would always reiterate to me what he learned from a friend of his: ES, EM, ED—which means Every Second, Every Minute, Every Day. He continuously reminded me to live my life to the fullest every second I have. And under the sovereign care of my Heavenly Father, I knew it was my duty, my obligation to be thankful for every last second—because every last second is a gift from the Lord.

But even this attitude is countercultural. We live in a day and age of ungratefulness, of irritableness, of plain ‘ole grumpiness. Christians are called by God to stand out like a sore thumb. And these days all we have to do is be perpetually thankful.

Thankful for God’s Sovereign Will

God is sovereign, and I am not. That fact right there should cause an immense amount of gratitude to swell up in my heart. God’s will for our lives—his perfect will—is unchangeable. Man lives his life, but God plans it all. See for yourself.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand (Proverbs 19:21).

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Proverbs 16:9).

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord (Proverbs 16:1).

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble (Proverbs 16:3-4).

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in you book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:16).

Many people—even well meaning Christians—balk at the idea of God controlling every last minute detail of life. They say he is sovereign, but how sovereign? “If there is one single atom in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty,” the late R.C. Sproul once wrote, “then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

Scripture is pretty clear. For God to be sovereign he must be sovereign over all. There is not one thing, not one animal, not one human invention, not one person that freely roams outside the sovereign control of God. And that is a good thing, because we serve a good God. And our good God does whatever he wants (Ps. 115:3). And we should be thankful for that.

Thankful He Knows My Needs

Part of God caring for his children (1 Peter 5:7) is the glorious truth that he will provide all we need. As he tells us in Matthew’s Gospel, he knows what we need. If he faithfully cares for the birds of the sky and the flowers in the ground, don’t we think he will take care of us all the more? We have far more value than birds and flowers. God’s got us.

With that said, we must address an issue here that falls entirely on our backs. Too many times we fall prey to thinking our wants and desires are truly needs. God does not promise to provide all we want; he promises to give us all we need.

Truth be told, we don’t need many things in this life. We Western Christians have it made. We are filthy rich compared to the rest of the world. And yet, we are perpetually dissatisfied because there is always a new fad, a new toy, a new something. Our consumer-driven society has drawn us into the sinful fray of believing everything is a need, not a want. We must renew our minds, as Paul exhorts us to do in Romans 12:2. We must not be conformed to this world; we must be different. And that comes all the way down to how our heart posture is. Are we consistently thankful or habitually ungrateful?

Thankful He Sent His Son

The most beautiful act of love ever shown is God the Father sending God the Son into the world to die in the place of those who would believe (John 3:16). It’s unfathomable, breathtaking, out-of-this-world. What incredible love God has for us, filthy sinners. The love of God displayed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is simply glorious.

John MacArthur said:

The second member of the Trinity would take on all the weakness and infirmity (yet not sin) of human nature and would secure for his people the righteousness, forgiveness, and cleansing that they could never obtain for themselves.

Evangelicals focus heavily on Jesus’s death on the cross and subsequent resurrection—which we absolutely should!— but sometimes we do so at the expense of a vitally important truth: Jesus was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). His sinless life was just as important as his atoning death.

And it’s because of the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus that we are able to be saved by God. Our salvation is a complete gift from the Lord (Eph. 2:8-9), so we cannot boast, but only be thankful.

Be Thankful

We have all the reason in the world to be thankful, while society continues to complain. Let’s be intentional about thankfulness and remember all of life is a gracious gift from God.

Part of this blog—the sections on ways to be thankful—was adapted from my book Taking No for an Answer: How to Respond When God Says No to Our Prayers.