The Bible tells us that God’s love is too great for us to fully comprehend, yet we may experience it to the fullest extent. When we experience it, we may understand it. Yet, the love of Christ is too great for us to fully understand. Ephesians 3:18-19a says, “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.” This is a paradox!
How are we to understand something that is not understandable? And what does this have to do with being thankful?
Like God’s love, gratitude is a gift. It seems the more we grasp it, the farther it is from our ability to understand it. But once we experience it, we desire to embrace it more and more. It is not enough just to say, “I am thankful to God.” Our words and our thoughts are not sufficient to express our response to God’s goodness. Our vocabulary is too limited and our reasoning capabilities are hindered by our humanness. In spite of these weaknesses, the more thankful we are, the more thankful we become.
This is part of what it means to partake in the divine nature of God (II Peter 1:4). God allows us to engage in a supernatural experience with Him. He reveals His love to us; we respond and begin a life-long process of growing to love Him more every day. Likewise, God opens our hearts to the gift of gratitude, yet we can never experience enough gratitude. I was thankful yesterday – I am more thankful today than yesterday – I will be more thankful tomorrow than I am today. Ad infinitum.
We are at our worst when we are ungrateful. When we forget God’s blessings, when we become entitled, when we demand more and more – (greed, selfishness and narcissism are destructive elements), we miss the heart of God. Trying to convince an ingrate to be thankful is akin to reasoning with a man who uses the breath of life to curse God.
“God has been good!” The understatement of the century! Unless we feely come to terms with the incomprehensible goodness of God, we will lack hearts of gratitude. So, how many times must we say, “thank you” to God? Once is not enough, nor is one million times. The point is not to say “thank you” enough times. The point is to live a life of ever-increasing gratitude to the Lord.
This Thanksgiving season, let’s make our very best effort to be truly grateful. In order to accomplish this, we must realize our inability to accomplish it without God enabling us. An old song says, “even the praise comes from You.” Think about that. The thankfulness that you feel in your heart is a gift from God. You could not begin to thank Him unless He provides the wherewithal to do so. Quite humbling!
If we run out of words of gratitude, if we feel inadequate when trying to express our thankfulness, perhaps we should read the remainder of Paul’s address on the topic: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Thoughts on Life and Leading 
Reblogged this on Praying for the millennials.