1 Corinthians 1:04 “I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,” (RSV)
How many people in the world are today, this very day, giving thanks to God for you…. 1, 10, a hundred, or is it millions? Do you believe that there are millions of Christians around the world praying for us, as American Christians, praying for our safety, our support, and our ability to withstand the temptations and turmoil which we see daily in our land. Or, we could turn the question around and ask, ‘How many people are you praying for?’… just your family? Maybe a few friends in need? Maybe our leaders and soldiers overseas? But are you praying for the ‘whole Christian Church on Earth’? Saints in other lands who are living and dying for the sake of the Gospel. I most often catch myself still confining the powers of God into just my little space and my limited view of His world. Thanks we give should be a BIG word covering so many things that we should be mindful of. In Norwegian, if you had a special meal or someone did a great favor for you, the expression was “tusen takk” which means ‘a thousand thanks’… but, in our family, as the grandparents passed the language on to their children (our parents), we also added the word ‘mange’ (the word for many) to it so it was ‘mange tusen takk’ or ‘many thousand thanks’. I think that is where we need to be in our lives…. Speaking the words to Christ.. those words of giving thanks as ‘mange tusen takk’ giving thanks for thousands (upon thousands) of his people. We are not alone in our faith. In Paul’s verse, it was likely that his thanks are for a few handfuls of followers that he left behind in Corinth, after all, it was only his first trip there. But those numbers grew and grew. They continued to grow because of ‘the grace of God”… and we all know by now that grace can be remembered by the acronym ‘God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense’ (i.e. GRACE)… or, with just the understanding that it is ‘undeserved favor’ which comes to us from God… His good grace to us. And we get that grace, not by anything that we are, or do, or have, or know, or can buy…. It is ONLY given to us in Christ Jesus. So, we start by learning to Give Thanks by remembering to give thanks to God for those around us, who have been given that grace to know who Jesus is in their lives…. That knowing makes all the difference in the world.
