As we celebrated Thanksgiving this past week, I was thinking about giving thanks. There are many things that we are thankful for: family, friends, church, country, etc. But as I thought about the examples of thanksgiving in the New Testament, I found that my thanks seemed very temporal and very me-centered.
In Colossians 1:3-8, Paul opens the epistle with a prayer of thanksgiving for the believers (as he does in almost all of his epistles). His prayer of thanksgiving for those believers encompasses at least four major areas:
In Colossians 1:3-8, Paul opens the epistle with a prayer of thanksgiving for the believers (as he does in almost all of his epistles). His prayer of thanksgiving for those believers encompasses at least four major areas:
- He thanks God for the believers' faith.
- He thanks God for the believers' love for each other.
- He thanks God for the spread of the Gospel, both quantitatively (to more people), and qualitatively (in more consistent obedience).
- He thanks God for faithful ministers of the Gospel (like Epaphras).
I just get the feeling that even my thanks to God is often very shallow.
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