Jeff Patterson and I had a bit of a discussion this week on the idea of being thankful---"discussion," of course, referring to some email exchange, the easiest sort of conversation to have when you are separated by over 3,000 miles and three time zones. Jeff is fellow contributor to GoingtoSeminary.com, and posted his thoughts in response to our discussion both here and here. Read his post and contribute to the conversation about how gratitude can be a defining mark of our lives.

Simply put, what Jeff is saying is that all of life is to be lived out of thankfulness to God. One of the confessional documents of the Reformed tradition, the Heidelberg Catechism, is structured in a way that demonstrates this point. The Catechism is divided into three parts, sometimes given the headings “sin,” “salvation,” and “gratitude.” It has always struck me as significant that the part about gratitude was the longest part. Once we recognize our sin and realize that our salvation is entirely dependent on God’s grace, our only response can and must be a life of gratitude. That gratitude is expressed in full obedience and submission to the sovereign rule of God.

I am not going to say much more and instead invite you to read what Jeff has expressed so well in his post. Instead, what I want to do to quote somewhat extensively from a sermon of Jonathan Edwards delivered on Thanksgiving of 1734 that I think will be helpful in orienting us towards living a life of thankfulness. In this sermon, entitled "Praise, One of the Chief Employments of Heaven," Edwards makes the point that the saints in heaven are involved in the act of continually praising God because they see God, they have a greater sense of the fruits of His mercy than we do, and they are perfected both in humility and in their love for God. "Hence," says Edwards,

we may learn the excellency of this work of praising God. That it is a most excellent employment, appears because it is a heavenly employment. It is that work wherein the saints and angels are continually employed...No employment can be a greater honor to a man than to praise God...

...the Church of God on earth ought to be employed in the same work with the saints in heaven, because they are the same society. As they are but one family, have but one Father, one inheritance, so they should have but one work. The Church on earth ought to join with the saints in heaven in their employment, as God hath joined them in one society by His grace.

Edwards later speaks of the works of God's mercy, the reason that we are to be engaged in a constant act of praise and thanksgiving.

The mercy and grace of God for which the saints in heaven will chiefly praise Him is His mercy exercised in the work of redemption, which work has been wrought out in this world. This love of God is the chief object of their admiration, and what they chiefly contemplate, and that employs their most ardent praises.

The grace of Christ, about which their praises will be principally employed, is that He should so love sinful man as to undertake for him, to take upon Him man's nature, and lay down His life for him. We find that is the subject of their praises in Rev. 5:8, 9: 'And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints; and they sang a new song, "Thou art worthy, for Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood."'

They will chiefly praise God for these fruits of His mercy, because these are the greatest fruits of it that ever have been...This work has been wrought here, among us in the world. 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' The incarnation of Christ was a thing that was brought to pass in this world, and all the sufferings and death of Christ were also accomplished on earth. Shall heaven be filled with praises for what was done on earth, and shall there be no praises on earth where it was done?...

After pointing out the work of Christ and how it commands a life of eternal gratitude and thankfulness from us, Edwards then offers us this encourgement to be involved in a life of praise to God. He says,

If we begin now to exercise ourselves in the work of heaven, it will be the way to have foretastes of the enjoyments of heaven. The business and the happiness go together. This will be the way to have your heart filled with spiritual joy and comfort. If you heartily praise God, you shall rejoice in Him, and He will show you more of Himself, of His glory and love, that you may still have greater cause of praise.

Labels: faith, God, Jonathan Edwards, thankfulness