“Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small” (Jer. 30:19).
When I read this verse, I was excited, because it links thanksgiving with celebration and fruitfulness. So thanksgiving is a key. The Bible has some things to say about keys. It speaks about the key of the House of David, the key of knowledge and the key to the bottomless pit. There are also the keys of the kingdom of heavens and our Lord has the keys of death and hades (Rev. 1:18).
Keys are important in life. Without the right key we may not enter our house or start our car. Some yars ago I read Norman Grubb’s ‘The Key to Everything’ in which he explained that union is the key to life in Christ and therefore to everything. It turned out to be a ‘ key book’ to bring me to the stage of spiritual fatherhood.
Do you want to celebrate each day? The key is thankfulness, continually and in everything. Psalm 50:23 is revealing here: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation [i.e. fullness] of God!” A Dutch translation says: “The one who offers thanksgiving acknowledges who I really am …” There you have it: thanksgiving is a spirit attitude in which we acknowledge the I AM and who I am. So thanksgiving is our general word of faith which can be used in all circumstances. Often we don’t have a specific word of faith, but thanksgiving is there all the time. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice because it’s the attitude of our spirit in accordance with the Spirit of God who has an eternal cross in His heart. Thankfulness is a matter of the spirit, of the heart (Col. 3:15,16). The more we are fixed in who we are, the more thanksgiving will abound (Col. 2:7). It all starts with thanksgiving, because that’s our spirit attitude which precedes Spirit action. Whatever we like or don’t like or whatever we like to happen or don’t like to happen or doesn’t happen at all, “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:17,18 ESV). Thankfulness is a master key for us each day, the ‘skeleton key’, by which “you shall know that I AM the LORD” (Ezek. 37:1-6). Thankfulness is never in vain because all things work together for us who love Him (Rom. 8:28-31), “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Celebration implies a feast and “the cheerful of heart has a continual feast” (Prov. 15:15). Thankfulness and cheerfulness (gladness) always go together. Thanksgiving and praise are forms of prayer: “Are you hurting? Pray” (James 5:13 MSG) – GIVE THANKS, PRAISE.
