Gratitude || Ephesians 5:19-20 || Manna for the Mind #128

Welcome to Day 128 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Ephesians 5:19-20 is our focus passage today. I’ll discuss what it means to worship and give thanks to God.

Ephesians 5:19-20

AMP	NLT	VOICE
19 Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [offering praise by] singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;	19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.	19 When you are filled with the Spirit, you are empowered to speak to each other in the soulful words of pious songs, hymns, and spiritual songs; to sing and make music with your hearts attuned to God;
20 always giving thanks to God the Father for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;	20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.	20 and to give thanks to God the Father every day through the name of our Lord Jesus the Anointed for all He has done.

You may struggle to give thanks when you feel like life has worn you down. There are two ways to do this: take heart and thank God. Taking heart refers to realizing that God works for our good when it comes to being a believer. God cares too much for his creation to allow evil to happen to us, which we find through the understanding that God’s goodness will show when we wrestle with the chaos of life. Thank God for the strength he built in you through difficult life experiences. It can feel forced or fake, but the more you adopt this mindset, the stronger your gratitude will get. God’s love will see you in any trouble. God doesn’t cause problems in our lives but works through them to help us.

Colossians 3:16

AMP	NLT	VOICE
16 Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind – permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.	16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.	16 Let the word of the Anointed One richly inhabit your lives. With all wisdom teach, counsel, and instruct one another. Sing the psalms, compose hymns and songs inspired by the Spirit, and keep on singing – sing to God from hearts full and spilling over with thankfulness.

Although early Christians had access to and freely used the Old Testament, they didn’t have the New Testament like ours. Their stories and teachings about Christ were memorized and passed on from person to person. These teachings were often set to music (see the Psalms). So, music became an essential part of Christian worship and education. It explains the importance of music in our worship service today. Music is used to connect the different generations to the teachings of God. Churches often fight over what type of music to share, whether organ music with classic hymns or a praise band with today’s contemporary hits. The fact that the arguments about this exist shows the disservice we do to the church. I understand the church doesn’t always have the capability or flexibility to share all types of music to reach all demographics. Still, we need to strike a balance (as with everything) and allow the goodness to permeate through various mediums.

Thankful people can worship wholeheartedly. Gratitude opens our hearts to God’s peace and enables us to put on love. Discontent people constantly evaluate what’s wrong with their lot in life and compare themselves negatively with others. To increase our thankfulness, we need to inventory everything we have. Use it to pray with gratitude. Declare a day as your day of gratitude. Take time to center yourself to reflect on how we should be thankful. Find God’s goodness and pray for guidance and peace for all your needs in the week ahead.

People who focus on what they don’t have and the disparaging comparisons with those around them aren’t focused on God’s life but on a life that the world shows. People who find content in what they have to count the extra as blessings and can celebrate all that is showing gratitude. Let the words of Brandon’s Lake “Gratitude” take place in your heart:

So I throw up my hands

And praise You again and again

‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah

Hallelujah

And I know it’s not much

But I’ve nothing else fit for a King

Except for a heart singing hallelujah

Hallelujah