What Is Thankfulness and How Do You Become It?

Class Outline:

Sunday November 23, 2025

 

Main idea: Because God gives all things by grace, every believer must have a heart of gratitude every day, despite circumstances.

 

Intro:

 

Being thankful is as vital as having love in living the Christian life effectively. These two virtues go together. If you’re not grateful you cannot love someone.

 

Thankfulness: The acknowledgment and expression reflected from within us when an undeserved gift is received.

 

What causes ingratitude is a faulty flow in information.

 

Gratitude towards God, consistently, daily is vital to living the Christian way of life.

 

Main passage: 2CO 4:15

 

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.

 

“All things” - the ministry of the gospel.

“For your sakes” - the gospel is a grace gift to all.

 

It is vital to know how badly the Corinthians treated Paul for us to understand the depth of this statement, “all things are for your sakes.”

 

 

Have you ever been rejected by someone your truly loved, not just affection, but loved deeply? Did you, or have you since, thank God for it? There is a real and powerful and life changing reason to do so.

 

Why has the ministry of the gospel produced such grace that thanksgiving has abounded (perisseuo) to the glory of God? The gospel is a gift to a fallen and undeserving world. No one is worthy of it.

 

Defining Thanksgiving: The acknowledgment and expression reflected from within us when an undeserved gift is received … from the grace of God.

 

Thanksgiving emerges from our conscience.

 

Conscience is the understanding power of our souls that examines how matters stand between God and us.

 

The conscience is the faculty which God put in man to be the mirror for His Word in its application to our lives. We catch the light of God’s Word and reflect it in concentrated focus upon our deeds, desires, goals, and choices. And in this case, apart from deeds yet done, we reflect back to God thankfulness, and our hearts become filled with joy and love for Him.

 

2CO 3:16-18

whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

 

God’s gifts reflect their beauty throughout our souls, and with them, an incredible realization overwhelms us that we never deserved any part of it.

 

The grace part to this is vital.

 

The less pride in you (self-justification, self-absorption, self-seeking …) is the more thankfulness in you.

 

When we consider all that has been given to us in Christ in the church age, we might find ourselves to be puzzled as to why we’re not more grateful and happy.

 

In Christ the gifts of God have a permanency not known in the OT and much greater in number (HEB 8:6; JOH 7:38-39 (gift of the Holy Spirit); 2CO 3:18; HEB 12:18, 22).

 

We are commanded to be thankful over 100 times in Scripture. You have to actively pursue a commandment. Commandment fulfilling is not a natural thing.

 

“Gratitude is not a feeling; it’s a discipline of attention.” [Ann Voskamp]

 

Method of developing and increasing thankfulness:

 

1. Knowing: Train your mind to actively look for things from God to be thankful for every day, throughout the day.

 

1TH 5:18

in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

GEN 15:5

"Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them."

 

2. Active practice: follow the commandments.

 

Ps 100:4

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

 

Ps 103:1

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget none of His benefits;

 

COL 2:6-7

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 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.

 

COL 3:15-17

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 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. 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.

 

“Every morning: thank God for five things before getting out of bed. Every night: thank God for three things from the day—even if the day had been terrible.” [Corrie Ten Boom]

 

3. Special bonus thanksgiving increase: thankfulness to God for suffering.

 

Thankfulness to God in suffering accelerates mature faith and gratitude. This is because it kills more of self and raises awareness of more of God.

 

The way of the puritans shocked people, and still does. Not only did they thank God while in suffering and after suffering was over, but they went further and thanked God for the suffering itself.

 

“Thank You, Lord, for this hard thing—because it is making me depend on You more, killing my pride, and giving me a deeper share in the fellowship of Your Son’s sufferings.” [Matthew Henry]

 

Corrie Ten Boom: The Fleas Story (from The Hiding Place, 1971)

 

“That day I learned that when God tells us to give thanks in everything, He really means everything—even the fleas. And when we obey, we discover that even the worst things can be turned into something that works for good and for His glory.” [Corrie Ten Boom]

 

Paul’s thanksgiving for his ministry and his next thought.

 

2CO 4:15-18

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.

 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 

Method of gaining a thankful heart - heart transformation and not behavior modification.

 

The Lord Jesus has already given you a heart transplant. Now you and I need to modify it.

 

God commands us to be thankful over 100x in the Bible. This means that it is necessary. It also means something easily overlooked. We must be active in following it. We must make a point to be thankful daily, multiple times a day.

 

If you are thankful to God for suffering, you will accelerate the maturity of your faith. Keep that in mind and just do it!