Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Sometimes giving thanks comes naturally—like during the Thanksgiving season. You might even have a practice where you're surrounding the table and the turkey's in the middle. Before you cut into it, you might have everyone say something that they're thankful for. I’ve loved that practice whenever I've been able to take part in it, because when you hear everyone remark on what they're thankful for, it actually feels like your own heart is uplifted. You’re reminded of all of the things that you can be thankful for, as well.
It's important for us to constantly be giving thanks, because when we are thankful to God for what we have, it helps us appreciate what He's done and it helps us gratefully anticipate the future what He can and will do again. Giving thanks is a regular practice for the follower of the way of Jesus.
Why We Pray in Jesus' Name
I love how this verse talks very specifically about how we should give thanks. It says, "Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This might be something that is sort of elementary to some, and I sometimes need to make things very simple to understand them myself. Have you ever thought about why we pray for things in Jesus' name? It might be something that you just do by rote repetition, but when you think about it, it's extraordinarily significant that we can do anything in the name of Jesus.
This verse says to give thanks to God in the name of Jesus. Well, this group of people who would have been reading this letter heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that His death, burial, and resurrection brought freedom and newness of life. Because of His work on the cross and His defeat of sin and death, this group of people who were under the slavery of the sin that held them in bondage, were set free because of what Christ had done.
Ultimate Gratitude Through Christ
They're reminded to give thanks and remember the things that God has done. The writer Paul centralizes the passageway to thankfulness to God by saying, it is through Jesus Christ that we can truly, ultimately be thankful. It's because of what He's done that, ultimately, we can find the true freedom, forgiveness, and renewal that we need in our lives.
I think this is a great reminder for us as well. We give thanks to God for what He's done, for the things in our lives. But the ultimate gratitude, the thankfulness that we have that can exceed any other kind of gratitude, is that we have salvation through the work of Christ, and it is through Christ alone that we find this freedom.
When we pray in Jesus' name, we're not just sending words up to God that we hope will make it according to our own spirituality or our own effort. It is because of Christ and what He has done. He has given us access to the Father, His Father, our Father, and our gratitude is full because of what Christ has done.