Pastor Dominic Cardamone
Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” These two verses teach us about our journey of faith in Christ and how it relates to thanksgiving.
THANKSGIVING SHOULD BE OUR COMPANION.
As Paul encouraged the Colossians in this passage to continue to grow spiritually, he told them to do so with thanksgiving. Just like peanut butter goes with jelly, bacon goes with eggs, and salt goes with pepper, thanksgiving should accompany the Christian. Thanksgiving should be our daily companion. There are three items I make sure I have on my person any time I walk out the door to leave home. I check for my truck keys, my wallet, and my phone. All three are with me every day. I could not function well without them. When we fail to be thankful, our daily journey of faith suffers too. Sadly, complaining, murmuring, criticism, and gossip often are the companions of Christians. This should not be. Let thanksgiving be a part of your daily life.
Come into his presence and into his gates with thanksgiving - Psalms 95:2, 100:4
Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving - Psalms 147:7
Sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving - Jonah 2:9
By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God - Philippians 4:6
THANKSGIVING IS AN INDICATION OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY.
Paul’s teaching in these verses in essence was demonstrating that thanksgiving was a crowning feature of a mature Christian. The progression goes like this…
Faith in its infancy is receiving Christ. (vs. 6a… “received Christ Jesus the Lord”)
Faith in its intermediate stage is growing in Christ. (vs. 6b, 7a… “so walk in him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught”)
Faith in its maturity is abounding in Christ with thanksgiving. (vs. 7b… “abounding therein with thanksgiving.”)
In other words, thanksgiving is faith all grown up! You can easily identify a mature, male deer by its antlers. The large number and size of the horns are a dead giveaway that you are looking at a mature buck. A mature Christian will have obvious signifiers of his or her maturity too. When love, generosity, zeal, grace, patience, forgiveness, forbearance, etc., exudes from a Christian’s life, it’s obvious there is spiritual maturity. Thanksgiving will certainly be at the top of the list too. What does your attitude of gratitude reveal concerning your spiritual growth? Is your faith thriving or is stunted? Your thankfulness is a litmus test to indicate one or the other. When someone lacks a thankful spirit, there is something wrong… a wrong perspective, a self-focus, a misunderstanding, and/or a wrong attitude. Let us examine ourselves and ask God to help us engender thanksgiving through a life of growing faith in Him.