Some commands of God are specific to certain situations. “Keep the Sabbath day”—in whatever sense it is meant to apply to us is clearly limited to that one day in seven. Likewise, the command to forgive is of particular importance when you perceive someone to have wronged you. The instruction for husbands to love their wives only directly applies to you if you are currently married.

Yet it is striking how many of God’s commands are universal in their relevance. They apply to every human being, in every situation, throughout every day. They are to be obeyed whether you are young or old, rich or poor, working or retired, sick or healthy, male or female, married or single.

Every person is to love God and to love their neighbor. Everything that has breath is to be continually praise Yahweh, the one true and living God (Psalm 150:6). It is never okay to kill, steal, or covet. Paul preached to both Jews and Greeks repentance to God and faith toward Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). We ought always to be loathing what is evil and holding fast to what is good (Romans 12:9). We are to be praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

A command, however, that we unconsciously tend to relegate to the former category appropriate for specific seasons or occasions in life is the command to thanksgiving. We feel the obligation to be grateful when we receive a bonus at work, or a clean biopsy report, or an unexpected break in the weather. And of course, we are supposed to be thankful on Thanksgiving Day.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:18

The Bible, though, makes it plain that a grateful spirit is to characterize our everyday life, actions, aspirations, and motivations. Even our deepest longings and most urgent prayer requests to God are to be made with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6).

Gratitude Is Worship

Why is God so interested in our authentic expressions of thanksgiving? It is because gratitude in our hearts is inseparably connected with a healthy view of ourselves, this world, and our relation to God. Genuine gratitude is worship, and worship is the response of a soul that has properly apprehended the majesty of God, and precisely the goodness of God in Jesus Christ.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
— Psalm 100:4

The heart that is embracing the reality of God’s grace is a heart that is overflowing in grateful worship to God for all his goodness. Constant worship is the proportionate response of faith to what God has given us in Jesus.

Gratitude Is Walking In Jesus

“As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him… abounding in thanksgiving.”
— Colossians 2:6–7

Paul here connects abundant thanksgiving with receiving Jesus as Lord, with walking in Jesus, and with being rooted and built up in Jesus. Biblical thanksgiving is consciously and exclusively grounded in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Only gratitude that arises out of a personal walk with Christ truly honors God. Only the Christian can give thanks through Jesus and in His name (Colossians 3:17).

So Gratitude Should Be Constant

“By him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God… giving thanks to his name.”
— Hebrews 13:15, NKJV

Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior have right now “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). There is never a time in our day or an occasion in our life that the goodness of God in Jesus is not worthy of our greatest expressions of gratitude.

For more on our November series please visit: Gratitude That Endures: Cultivating Thankful Hearts in Christ