C. S. Lewis said that when he first came to Christ, he struggled with the idea of giving God praise and thanksgiving, especially that we are commanded to do so. I certainly resonated with that as a young Christian. I wondered why it is such an oft-repeated command. It reminded me of being told as a child that I had to say “thank-you” when a relative gave me a gift. Somehow, being commanded to do it made it harder to be sincere. I thought I was thanking them to make them feel good about themselves and their gift. Is this the way it is with God—that we need to make Him feel better? Or is it that we have to give Him thanks and praise in order to get Him to do what we want Him to do for us—our part of the contract, so to speak?
Fortunately, over the years God has helped me grow and gain a clearer perspective on worship and thanksgiving. I know now that the giving of thanks and praise is the appropriate, proper response to our wonderful triune God. It is the response that exactly fits with who He is. The Bible is full of examples of people responding to God with praise, wonder, and gratitude. Paul frequently thanks God in his letters, either for the people he is writing to or for what the Father has done for us in and through His Son. Jesus thanks His Father before feeding the five thousand and at the Last Supper, as well as on other occasions.
Both thanks and praise are responses to God, not what we start with to get God going or to fulfill some command. Thanking God is the fitting response to what He does and praising Him is what we want most to do when we see who He is. C. S. Lewis makes this observation about the nature of praise:
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed … If it were possible for a created soul fully (I mean, up to the full measure conceivable in a finite being) to ‘appreciate’, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude. (Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 9)
Praise and thanksgiving are drawn out of us when we take the time to gaze on the holy love, presence, and activity of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. When the psalmists call on others to praise, it is because they are responding to and enjoying the goodness of God and want others to join them in their joy. Isn’t this just what we do when we hear a wonderful piece of music or see a brilliant sunset?
Therefore, we can say that gratitude and worship are signs of our being grasped by reality. I think that giving God thanks and praise is more for our benefit than for His. When we worship and thank God, we remember again who He really is and who we are in relationship to him. Praise and thanksgiving enables us to shake off any delusions or distortions that have clouded our perspective.
Admittedly, it isn’t always easy to be thankful. Sometimes, when we are in difficult circumstances, it is a struggle to even know what to thank God for. But in those moments of agony, if we can turn our eyes away from our circumstances to the God who is with us and at work in the midst of them, we can receive with thanksgiving His gracious presence, comfort, and assurance that He is still faithfully at work and that these trials will not be the last word in our lives. Out of the death of Jesus on the cross, God brought resurrection, life, redemption, and transformation. These are the things Jesus accomplishes for us and the Spirit gives us a share in. We can thank and praise God when we look upon and receive again these things in the midst of our lives here and now.
Taking the time to be thankful helps us to see clearly again the character of the triune God and helps lay our anxieties to rest. When I pray for someone I am close to as this person goes through great difficulties, I thank God that He already knows all about the situation, that Jesus is already interceding with the Spirit, and that the whole God already deeply loves this person—even more than I do. As I lift my eyes from the particular circumstances this person is currently dealing with and remember, by way of thanksgiving, who God truly is, I am able to receive His peace. What a relief to be reminded of the truth—that I am not in charge, that I don’t see everything that is going on, and that the triune God is fully present here, not absent.
I think that the reason we are so often reminded to be thankful and to praise God is because we get lost in our fears, resentments, anxieties, and we forget who God is. Being in a state of thanklessness is a good indicator that our view of God is out of whack.
In the giving of thanks, we remember who God is and what He is at work doing in our lives. He is the triune God and He is enabling us to be the sons and daughters He created us to be, so that we can fully participate in the loving relationship that is His triune life. He gives us His presence and His peace, as well as His Spirit to help us grow and change. My husband, Gary, was once asked by a friend, “Doesn’t God want us to enjoy life?” and he replied, “I am not sure that we will always enjoy life, but I know He wants us to enjoy Him in the midst of our lives.” Giving thanks and praise helps us to once again enjoy God.
Thanking and praising God also helps us remember who we are. We are created by God and we find our worth and identity in being His beloved children. In the giving of thanks, we can once again cast off the burden of living by others’ expectations (or our own for that matter!). We can shake off the anxieties and feelings of guilt that hold us fast. We are once again reminded that we are not in control of our lives. It is God who initiates, again and again, with grace and we respond by receiving with thanks. We don’t have to be worried or anxious about making everything work out the way we want. Giving thanks frees us to focus on God’s presence and peace in whatever situation we are facing.
Giving thanks enables us to give more freely to others. When we once again realize that the triune God cares intimately for us and is working with us for our good, we can loosen our focus on ourselves and see more clearly to give to others. Thanksgiving is a great remedy for worrying. Remembering that my children (and now grandchild!) are gifts from my gracious heavenly Father, for instance, helps me not to be caught up in fretting over them and enables me to love them as God does.
Giving thanks for and to others helps us see them as they are—in relation to Christ. We can give them what Jesus leads us to give and receive from them what they actually have to offer, not what I expect or demand that they give. Thanksgiving opens our relationships up to the peace and presence of the very Spirit of God. If I view what Gary does for me as signs of his love and receive them with thanks, I can enjoy the gift he has given me. But if I view what he does for me as merely fulfilling my expectations or demands, there is little joy and life in the gift, either for me or for him.
Giving thanks enables us to enjoy much of our day-to-day lives: the people, ministries, relationships, and opportunities that the triune God has placed in our lives. In Hebrews 1:3 it says that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power. Our very existence is a gift that He continually gives and maintains. He gives us ourselves, our relationships, our bodies, in fact, “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:17). How wonderful when we realize again this truth of our being recipients of all of God’s grace to us. C. S. Lewis, in the same work that I already quoted, says this:
I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it … I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. … The healthy and unaffected man, even if luxuriously brought up and widely experienced in good cookery, could praise a very modest meal; the dyspeptic and the snob found fault with all. Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. (ibid., my emphasis)
To give thanks and praise to Father, Son, and Spirit is simply to respond to who He is. It is the fitting, appropriate response to our triune God. So, let us lift our eyes, again and again, to see Him, from whom our help comes.