This morning I read Colossian 2:6-7.  Jump on my “train” of thought and go for a ride with me, won’t you?

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

As I read these verses over a couple times and then sat in them for a bit, what rose to the surface was the importance of the little word “in” – “walk in Him”, “firmly rooted and now being built up in Him”.  In the Greek language the word “in” (en) denotes a fixed position, as well as instrumentality.  As a believer, my position in Christ is fixed, it’s sure, nothing can snatch me from His hand (John 10:28-29).  Considering the “instrumentality” aspect of (en), the Spirit of God is the One who is building me up, or sanctifying me.  

Ok.  That was stop number one on my train ride (haha)  The next thing I did was list the things that HE does/did.  HE firmly rooted me.  HE is building me up.  HE has established me.  HE causes me to overflow with gratitude.  (screeeeccccchhhhhhh!!!)  That was the train screeching to a halt for a stop over, haha.  

HE causes me to overflow with gratitude.  

Being that we just celebrated Thanksgiving, this really caught my attention.  The word “overflowing” (perisseuō) is in the participle mood.  I call words in this mood “-ing words” because they are on-going, not one-and-done.  (Perisseuō) means to superabound, in quantity and quality; to excel; to be excessive.  

As I sat in that definition, I pondered the difference between “quantity” and “quality”.  It’s pretty simple to understand that “quantity” describes the amount of something.  But stop and consider with me the meaning of “quality”. 

Can being thankful be of a poor quality? 

To be sure I got the full meaning of “quality” I looked it up in the dictionary and found it to mean: essential character or nature of something; the degree of excellence; superiority in kind.  

So a question rose in my mind – are there different kinds or qualities of thanksgiving?  I would have to say yes to that question.  Here’s why I say that.  In Psalm 28:7 the psalmist writes, “The Lord is my strength and my shield, in Him my HEART trusts and I am helped; my HEART exults, and with song I give thanks to Him”, (emphasis added).  

I can say “thank you” with my lips, but those words can stem from my head and not my heart.  In that case, it wouldn’t be of a superior kind.  God desires thanksgiving from the heart.  Here’s an example. 

I can say grace before a meal; and that prayer can be by rote, the thankfulness not stemming from my heart but from my head because I know saying grace is something I should do.  How often before a meal do you find yourself saying the same thing as you thank God?  Are you even really thankful for the food, or are you just doing what you’re “supposed to”?  

Or how about this?  We say grace before a meal and hurry through it, because what’s on the table smells soooo good and you’re soooo hungry.  We really are thankful for the food, but in this case, we are focused on the gift and not the Giver. 

Here’s what I’m getting at.  True thanksgiving — from the heart thanksgiving — acknowledges the personhood of God.  God is the Provider of that meal.  God is the faithful Giver of our daily bread.  I’m not saying not to be grateful for the hands that prepared the meal, but so often we neglect the Giver of the essentials that were provided to prepare it.  

If I lose sight of the personhood and character of God — His attributes — my thanksgiving will be “situational”, like grace at a meal, one-and-done.  But that’s not what God desires of us.  

Let’s finish this train-ride by circling back now to the little word “in”.  The Spirit of God is instrumental in us overflowing with thanksgiving.  We must choose to slow down enough to be perceptive to His whispers throughout each day as He shines a light on who God is; and when He does, pause, sit in it, and allow your HEART to be filled to overflowing.  As Ann Voskamp said so well, for the believer, it’s not thanksgiving; it’s thanks-living.