Thanks-living

I think that is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will. 

(Charles Spurgeon)

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. 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. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (Colossians 3:15-17)

Thanks-living. That pretty much sums up how Jesus wants us to live each and every day. Spurgeon sums it up well when he says we are to perpetually and constantly delight ourselves in the Lord. Nothing stirs us to be thankful more than the consideration of what grace has done in our lives. Grace's protection, its provision, and its prevention have been our constant each day if Jesus has been the center of that day. We can take great joy in knowing his peace will never leave us, his provision will never fall short of our every need, nor his protection wane.

God loves a thankful heart because it has been and continues to be an open heart. When we become less thankful for what we have been given and focus more on the gifts than the giver, we are beginning to see our hearts shut down, closing us off from his presence more and more until one day, we realize we have drifted from where he is. We walk this earth as his representatives. What better way to represent him than to show his grace through our lives by the gratitude we bring into each moment. 

A 'filled life' is one that has grown content with the presence of Jesus and more than a little discontent with the things this world offers. The grateful soul is one that sees obedience as the natural outcome of grace's tremendous 'inpouring'. While some will say it is too hard to be obedient, I would counter that it is much harder to be disobedient! Obedience stems from a grateful heart. When we begin to realize the influence of grace isn't to 'deny' us anything, but to infuse us with much, much more than we imagined we needed, we might just teeter on the verge of thanks-living a bit more. Just sayin!