“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God…” Philippians 4:6
Faith is that basic principle, both in act and attitude, which characterizes what man’s relationship to God is to be. It is the very bedrock of communion with God, deliberately and specifically taking Him at His word, certain that God is faithful. The faithfulness of God means that He cannot deny Himself from being perfectly and complete true to His word, for His word is the very expression of His eternal and holy nature. For the believer, God’s word is very personal, for it is the gateway, and the path upon which one walks, by which he can know, love, and serve God. Faith in the faithfulness of God is the first and fundamental principle to be grasped and lived by if one is to meet God, and then to grow in the knowledge of Him, ever receiving from Him that which is necessary, sufficient, and abundant in order to glorify Him. But, at this point we need to ask, “And how is faith to be exercised in difficulties, or times of suffering in order to receive from God all that He desires to give, so that in that moment, at that time of trial, one can truly know Christ’s presence, power, and provision?
Throughout the ministry of the Apostle Paul, we see him opposed in his faith and message, persecuted by enemies that wanted to kill him, forsaken by brethren, subjected to physical suffering to the extreme, even to the point of perishing from shipwreck. He was a man of singular calling, gifted greatly for the accomplishment of his mission, to reach the Gentiles (Non-Jews) with the Gospel. Also committed to him was a certain authority and capacity by the Spirit of God to edify, or build up the church, the living body of Christ. Facing his limitations day after day, his struggles and trials, Paul would often write in his epistles of the necessity to be thankful to God. In times of great distress, perhaps in particular while he was in prison, or at the limit of physical exhaustion, Paul learned the imperative of a basic attitude of faith, that of thanking God for all that was true of him in Christ, for all that he knew of God and His work and promises in and towards him. He learned to thank God for the small things, as well as the great things. From being thankful for a basket by which he was let down over a wall and saved from his enemies to the provision of the word of God given to him for the fellow distressed of the ship in which he, with them, were in desperate straits for survival, Paul learned thanksgiving. The giving of thanks was a key component of God’s provision to exercise faith in time of bounty, but also, in times of great need. There was always something in the eternal work of Christ, and His presence, for which He could give thanks, and also something in the difficult situation which God was using to accomplish His purposes. Paul’s thankfulness, specific and continual, was the expression of his trust, and faith in God, the One to whom he had committed his life and eternity. This is the One of whom he would write: “…for I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” (2 Tim. 1:12)
The evidence that one does not believe in the faithfulness, the goodness and mercy of God, is that they are not thankful for Him, nor for that which pertains to Him. This is one reason for which Paul speaks of the wrath of God as it relates to thanklessness. The call of God to daily, moment by moment faith in Christ for all, expressed in thanksgiving to God, is both a command, a privilege, and a power given to the believer, to specifically express his love in God’s mercy and love.
Dear Father, Fill us with thankfulness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.