And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Colossian 3:15)
Someone once said, “The things we take for granted are dreams to many people.”
Why is that our thankfulness to God is so fickle? What I mean here is this. We can at one time be deeply grateful to the Lord for all he has provided for us physically and spiritually, but over time, that same depth of gratitude can all but disappear.
I often have to pull myself up on this. Why, I ask myself, am I not at least, constantly, thankful? You may be the same on this, in that your gratitude rises and then falls, according to circumstances of life. I believe the reason why we can be so ungrateful at times is this. The goodness of the Lord towards us is so constant and plentiful, we treat it as mundane and ordinary. It becomes to us like our next breath; we take it for granted. Because we experience the blessings of God every day, every hour, in every common breath we take, we become used to them. This every moment experience of God’s abundant blessing, dulls our appreciation and thankfulness.
But how dare we take for granted & esteem lightly all that the Lord is constantly doing with us and for us - even through our difficult circumstances?
The recipe I have found to nurturing a heart that exudes with thanks to God, is to meditate on God’s Word and be reminded of His abundant beneficence toward me. The more we do this, the more you “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you” (Col. 3:16), the more appreciative and consistently thankful to the Lord, you will be.” Let us heed the command in our text and cultivate thankfulness.