Abounding in thanks...

It's easy to make lists of all the everyday stuff I enjoy; the little blessings that make me smile, make my life easier, or bring beauty to ordinary days.  Yet gratitude is to be for so much more than the golden hue that falls over open fields and fills the earth with warmth.  Colossians is packed full of reminders and reasons to be thankful.  In each of the four chapters, Paul references a heart of gratefulness:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you...Colossians 1:3

• I should thank God for the joy and blessing of those whom He has to walk beside me.  Despite sometimes differing opinions and viewpoints and stands, Christ-followers are one.  And I must be thankful for these dear ones with whom I share life.  

...giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light...Colossians 1:12

• I should thank God that He has redeemed me and made the way for my sins to be forgiven and our relationship to be restored.

...rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  Colossians 2:7

• As I continue to grow in my faith and my understanding of what Christ did for me on the cross, thanksgiving should be the hallmark of my life.  As Nancy Leigh DeMoss has written, 

undeniable guilt + undeserved grace = unbridled gratitude

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  Colossians 3:15-17

• Dwelling, abiding, in Christ can't help but make me thankful.  For it's here that I'm reminded that I'm not alone.  I'm safe in Him.  I don't need to fret and worry and strive.  He's got everything under control.  When I'm abiding in Him, I've got something to share with those in my life; how He's working and showing Himself faithful; how He's changing and rearranging my heart.  My life can't help but spill over with thankfulness.  

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.  Colossians 4:2

• So often I come to God with my lengthy list of ways I need Him to move and provide; ways I'm crying out to Him to act on my behalf.  But as the 1-year-old of yesteryear, I'm learning to come to Him, saying, "Thank You, Father.  You've given me---You are---so much.  Thank You." 

In Christ, I have everything.  

And I long for my life to characterize the joy that comes from resting in that truth.

He's my Jesus.

And I'm thankful.