Last week, I was working on a sermon that will come out of Philemon later this year. In verse 4, Paul writes to Philemon: “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers…”
There’s a lot packed into that short verse, and I found G. K. Beale’s comments especially worth thinking on:
“Paul’s reflection on how God’s grace has impacted his readers leads him to give thanks to God for it. When there is no prayerful contemplation of divine blessings, there can be no attitude of thanksgiving. Certainly such prayerful remembrance includes making requests to God for his people, in whom he has begun to work.”
(Beale, Colossians and Philemon, p383)
What a challenging truth! If we don’t take time to remember, in the fullest sense of the word, what God has done then we won’t be a thankful people. To turn it around: if you aren’t thankful, it’s because you aren’t remembering.
Beale continues:
“Paul suggests that prayerful reflection on these divine blessings should occur ‘always.’ Otherwise one’s thankful perspective will be intermittent and inconsistent. Whoever does not continually reflect on such blessings will not be continually aware of them, thankful for them, or desiring to be thankful. Continual reflection on the Giver of good gifts to us causes us to be more conscious of and thankful for those gifts.”
(Beale, Colossians and Philemon, p383-384)
How can we more deeply and readily know how good God is to us? How can we develop a thankful attitude? Perhaps a bit ironically, the answer is to think often of what God has already done and is even now doing. Or, as the old song says “Count your blessings name them one by one…”
