For this Thanksgiving season, I have written an exploration and practice of Biblical thankfulness. Each Thursday leading up to Thanksgiving, I will post a blog and suggested personal study for the week. Check back for other resources as we work through what Biblical thankfulness looks like and how we develop it in our lives.
Grace is pervasive in Scripture.
What I mean by that is that story after story in the Bible shows God's grace. Grace goes hand in hand with gratitude. Even the words in Greek go together!
The word for grace or gift is charis and from that word is derived eucharisteo which means giving thanks or very literally "good grace."
I love that there are many words in Scripture that, in the original Greek or Hebrew, immediately imply something when read. The original reader, or hearer, sees the word and is immediately reminded of some concept, other word, or other piece of Scripture. For instance, there is a word that David uses in his psalms to cry out for help that implies that God has already answered and sent rescue before the psalmist cried out. So in that case, a call of help implies that rescue is already coming!
In this situation, when the reader sees charis a response of eucharisteo is implicit. They simply go together. Grace and gratitude. And likewise, when we see eucharisteo, it can be inferred that charis came before. When we see gratitude, we know that there was a good gift received.
And so beautiful is this language that it doesn't stop with grace and gratitude.
We see another word derived from charis and eucharisteo... chara: joy.
Even the way these words developed show us this process of grace, gratitude, and joyfulness. We don't skip straight to the point of joy. Sometimes we seem to think that once we have joy, then we can be thankful. That's not how it works. Thankfulness in response to grace is what creates joy.
Thankfulness as a response to grace is what creates deep, lasting joy.
So maybe like me you are at the point of asking, "How do I grow thankfulness?" That is what we will work through. I don't have the complete answer.
But. We have been given grace and promised joy... It is our turn to step up and create habits of gratitude. Let's dive into this together.
#livethankfully
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