Fragments

Thankfulness, Gratitude: A new joy shared with the giver of something undeserved.

How easily the word passes through the semi-conscious mind with little notice.
How habitually taken for granted as a concept or an impulse, no matter how thinly practiced.
It is remarkable really, when I pause to contemplate how habitually I take routine, constant pleasant things – good things – for granted...
...to the point of thoroughly entrenched unawareness,

while all the while the occasional pebble in the foot
the intrusive driver
the rainy day
the temporary soreness in the elbow
the critical look from a stranger
the “failure” of (whatever we think of as) God to “answer” a “prayer” - 

 – these occasional thorns and thistles grow within me, like grains of sand into vast treacherous deserts – though in most cases they are essential invitations to deeper kinds of life, or competence, or even joy.

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Then, however... 

Along comes the apostle Paul (for example) in the New Testament with his seeming obsession with thankfulness, both intentional and spontaneous: [see at the end…]

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It seems that a persistent sense of “righteous” entitlement pervades conventional human nature in it's current form. It is so persistent – our nature is so infested with it – that we can trust our own subjectivity only with great caution. 

And there indeed is a fatal irony. How am I to be more objective about my own subjectivity? Without God's merciful assistance, it would be like a person in lifelong darkness trying to examine what is there with herm in the room.

The headline and the punchline:

Fallen Humanity shares a blindness to the merciful good that pervades Reality — to astounding extents. This blindness is a learned, inculturated, and imbedded through routine. It becomes a component of what the New Testament calls our “flesh” - our practiced, largely unconscious, engrained impulses that constitute personality. One wonderful way that following Christ “saves” us is by teaching us to re-train the flesh toward a re-humanizing transformation…

in THIS life.

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As promised:

One of the great failings of corrupted humanity in general is our neglect of thankfulness
    • Rom_1:21  For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
 
Resurrecting thankfulness in those he served was a primary goal of his efforts
    • 2Co_1:11  you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.
    • 2Co_4:15  For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

His own inner life was subject to sudden eruptions of thankfulness
    • 2Co_9:15  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Prayer without thanks is a major component of ineffective prayer
    • Eph_1:16  I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
    • Phm_1:4  I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
    • 1Th_1:2  We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;
      
The great contrast and warfare between the two primary spiritual climates in routine human experience
    • Eph_5:4  and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
    • Col_3:16  Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Dominant thankfulness
    • Eph_5:20  always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
    • Col_3:17  Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
    • 1Th_5:18  in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
    • 2Th_1:3  We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, 
      
True Christian (and human) growth can not but involve gratitude
    • Col_2:7  having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
    • 1Ti_4:4  For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude
      
Thankfulness is a major bridge between faith and actual transformation
    • Heb_12:28  Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe

There is a strong sense in which those outside of Christ Jesus really cannot expect to have the most profound forms of intended human thankfulness.
    • Heb_13:15  Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

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