Read: Philippians 4:1-9
In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. (v. 6)
Is thankfulness the most elusive of all virtues? Maybe so. All I know is that when I look at the world and see it breaking from a hundred different fissures, I find myself wondering how thankfulness is supposed to well up from all of that brokenness, that mess, that ugliness. So when Paul, perhaps echoing another letter of his in which he commands the church to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16-18), then tells us to muster thanksgiving “in everything,” I find myself wanting to bristle.
Everything? Wars in Europe and the Middle East? An epidemic of loneliness ravaging our nation? Scandals in the church that shake us? Personal tragedies and quiet struggles? Yet Paul is insistent. “Do not be anxious about anything,” he writes. “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (v. 6).
Thankfulness doesn’t take place in ignorance of the messiness of the world, nor in false joy, as if your life is far better than it really is. Instead, it’s a posture of the heart. A posture that hopes, that yearns, that trusts that even when all is bleak, God’s good purposes will prevail. I believe that thankfulness—true, gospel thankfulness—is learning to see heaven breaking through even amid our tears and allowing God’s peace to “guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus” (v. 7). Thankfulness, therefore, is changing our vision so that Christ’s coming kingdom is ever in our sights.
As you pray, ask God to grant you true thankfulness in everything.
Co-authored by Rev. Jon Brown and Justin Kuiper.
Jon Brown is the lead pastor of Pillar Church in Holland, Michigan. Jon loves preaching and loves walking with people through all of life’s circumstances. He loves to invite people to follow Jesus in community on mission. Jon and his beloved wife, Kristyn, are the proud parents of four daughters.
Justin Kuiper is a student from Holland, Michigan, studying English literature at Hope College. His own writing explores the many intersections of faith, storytelling, and the created order.
