Jump Start # 2476

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

This week we are focusing upon thankfulness. Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. There will be turkey, laughter, and lots of conversations. The little ones will show off. The big ones will look for a nap. But all around that day, and every day, for the child of God, is the spirit of thankfulness.

There are four steps to thankfulness. So far we’ve seen: SAY IT (express your thankfulness); PRAY IT (tell the Lord). The next step comes straight out of our verse today. It is to SING IT. The thankful heart is a joyful heart. A thankful heart is upbeat, positive and optimistic. The thankful heart sings. We tend to sing when we are in a good mood. And, here in our verse, we are told to sing with thankfulness to God. Thankfulness in our hearts. Sometimes we try to sing in pitch. We try to sing in tune. But those things are secondary to singing with thankfulness in your heart to the Lord.

We think of the example of Paul, late at night, sitting in a Philippian jail, hurting because he had been beaten. And, there he is singing praises to God. That example from Acts 16 humbles and shames most of us. Singing out loud, so loud that others can hear me, is not on the list of things that I think I would be doing. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that I would be complaining and mad because of what had happened. But the apostle is singing. In the dark he is singing. Hurting he is singing.

Singing with thankfulness has a way of just turning your mood around. If we are not careful, we pick up on the way others act and feel. It’s easy to jump on the complaining bandwagon. It’s easy to see everything that is wrong. But to sing with thankfulness, what a bring ray of sunlight that is. It has a way of changing our perspective and opening our eyes to things that we failed to see.

We have a lot of songs that surround thanking the Lord. We ought to. That’s an important aspect of our relationship with Him and our walk together with one another. It seems that ancient Israel forgot that. We can do the same. For Israel, rather than thanking, they complained. And, that complaining got old very quickly and it irritated God. Their hearts did not show an attitude of gratitude. They were demanding more. They were wanting other things. Unhappy. Not content. Selfish. Put those three things in a pot, and stir them around two times and you get a heart that sees nothing to be thankful about.

Have you noticed how often children like to sing? They learn the alphabet, the books of the Bible and other things through songs. They often sing in their Bible classes. We adults, are much better than that, or, we think we are. So we don’t sing as much as children do. And, it could be that is why we often struggle with being thankful. It’s hard to sing a happy song without smiling.

Just think about some of our hymns that focus upon being thankful:

Thank You, Lord

Sing and be happy

Count your many blessings, name them one by one

Joyful, joyful, we adore You

This is my Father’s world

Great songs. Great reminders. Maybe as you gather with the family tomorrow, you can find a moment for everyone to sing. Sing a song of praise and thankfulness to God. Sing from your heart. Sing, realizing how wonderful God has been to you.

We have hope, life, direction, purpose, salvation and love through the Lord. It is because of Jesus that we stand and fight another day. It is because of Jesus, that we know the worst is really not all that bad. It is because of Jesus, that we know things will only get better. It is because of Jesus that there will never be a “The End” to our story.

Singing with thankfulness in your heart to the Lord. SING IT. SING OUT.

Roger