Monday, November 24, 2008
Colossians 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
RECIPE FOR A THANKFUL HEART: KNEAD IT
I'm not much good at cooking. Yes, I can make a few things, but I'm no gourmet, and I certainly can't do anything without a recipe. I'm amazed by the chefs on television who can be given just 60 minutes in a kitchen and invent five new dishes.
What about making something even more complicated -- like a thankful heart? That's what we want this week, isn't it? We want to be able to sit around our tables and enjoy God's gifts with a true spirit of thanksgiving. Is there a recipe for creating a thankful heart? How do you make someone truly thankful? Well, you don't, but God does. He knows what it takes to create in us a willingness and a desire to give thanks to Him. He knows the recipe.
First, like a baker must get his fingers into the bread and knead it, God must get His fingers into our hearts and soften them, work them, change them into hearts that He can fill with gratitude and love.
When you were born your hearts were uneven lumps. You didn't know God or care about Him. You were "dead" in your trespasses and sins. But God reached His fingers into your heart, as it were, and placed there a knowledge of and a trust in the gospel. Perhaps He did this through baptism when you were an infant. Perhaps He did it through the spoken or written word when you were older, but knead your heart He did. He showed you His own dear Son on the cross. He led your heart to gaze on Jesus so that you saw there the body that was given into death for you.
This is the first step in creating a thankful heart, and it is a step that only God can perform. He has given you a new heart that is prepared to love Him and serve Him -- a heart that is ready now to be thankful.