CHAPTER 21 -- The Thanksgiving of Faith
"So walk in Him, established in your faith, abounding in thanksgiving." Col. 2: 17.
The idea which is here expressed by the
apostle is, that where faith is active and growing it will always go
coupled with thanksgiving; as it stands written: "Then believed they
His words; they sang His praise." As faith stirs up to thanksgiving, so
it exercises a reactive influence; it in turn strengthens faith. Faith
and thanksgiving belong to one another and keep one another. The more I
believe, the more I shall thank; the more I thank, the more I shall
believe. The lack of faith is the reason that men give thanks so
little; the neglect of thanksgiving hinders and weakens faith. This is
a fault to which too little attention has been paid and from which many
a one suffers great loss. Let us consider it for a moment.
The reason why thanksgiving has the
effect of increasing faith is manifest. Faith has its greatest power in
the fact that in believing the soul wholly forgets itself, and with
undivided energy looks to God and hears Him -- goes out wholly to Him.
This is in like manner precisely the nature of thanksgiving, that in it
the soul must be entirely occupied with God, with the contemplation of
His goodness, the adoration of His Godhead, the consideration of His
ways, the expression of His wonders. Accordingly, the more the mind is
exercised in this work, and is taken up with the thought of all this,
the more shall there be fixed and rooted in it the conviction that the
Lord is truly a God on whom it is its duty to rely. If thanksgiving,
the express mention of His omnipotence, His love, His faithfulness, His
perfection shall fill the soul, the result cannot but be that the soul
shall suffer it to be concentrated on God. He that has but a single
word of such a God to build upon has enough. In such thanksgiving the
soul will have its desires roused, its courage strengthened, its inward
devotion to Him deepened. The shamefulness of its unbelief will be very
manifest as an offence against such a God. The remembrance of unbelief,
of my unworthiness, my lack of love, my insincerity, my weakness and my
uncertainty as to whether I shall remain faithful, -- all this shall be
utterly blotted out by what the thankful soul has expressed, namely,
that God in His compassionate and omnipotent love is greater than all
the force of sin and Satan. It cannot be otherwise, if thanksgiving
increases faith. Hence that word: "Abounding in faith with
thanksgiving."
And now I wish to ask you who here say
that you are seeking the increase of faith this question, Are you
really doing this by thanking God? If you are still unconverted, go and
thank Him that you are still not in hell. O, what a wonder it is that
in His longsuffering He has still borne with you and spared you. Thank
Him for this. Thank Him that He gave His Son Jesus for sinners. Yes:
although you are not yet able to say that He is yours, fall upon your
knees and thank God for His unspeakable gift to this sinful world and
also to you. Thank Him for His gracious promise which has also come to
you. O sinner, though you have as yet received little or nothing for
yourself, pray be not silent, but adore and speak of His wonderful
compassion. Let this be a daily work with you. Keep yourself intensely
occupied with it: let your soul abide in contemplating what God is,
what He has done, what He has promised He will do; how gracious, how
faithful He is and how mighty to deliver and endeavor, however
imperfectly, to express this on your knees before Him. In every
acknowledgment of your bitter misery, thank Him that He is God; confess
before Him that He is great and good. This thanksgiving will teach your
soul that you may calmly confide in God. And, throughout the whole
conflict of faith, you will often have to say that, when everything
looked utterly dark and your wretchedness was very deep, if you but
rendered thanks for what God was, hope then once more revived in your
soul. Whatever else fails you, this always remains -- a God to praise.
Never was your case so wretched, that you had nothing more left to be
thankful for. Only put this remedy to the proof: in the midst of all
that is dark, grievous, and incomprehensible for the soul, only begin
to praise, and your praising shall speedily merge in believing.
Praising and believing are one. [Translator’s note: The Dutch
here admits of a play upon words, “Loven en gelooven zijn een."]