Hebrews 13:15, Proverbs 18:21, Leviticus 7, Colossians 4:2

Jamie Anderson

The Bible says in Hebrews 13:15 that we are to offer up thanksgiving; a verbal sacrifice of praise as something that is a continual act of our worship. If we are to truly live with thanksgiving in our mouths, it must first be in our hearts.

Verbally giving thanks to God for what He's done requires little faith. It's pretty easy to say thank you for something we have already received. Yet as christians we often let our environment, our circumstances, or our feelings, dictate our ability to open our mouth and start saying "thank you" to Him. According to Proverbs 18:21, life and death are in the power of our tongue. If we really believed that perhaps we'd speak more cautiously and intentionally.

Dictionary.com defines thanksgiving as:

• noun - the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.


• an expression of thanks, esp. to God.


• a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.


• a day set apart for giving thanks to God.

The act of giving thanks, an expression of thanks, a public celebration, a day set apart, these look less like a definition and more like a lifestyle, something that God created us for. While thanksgiving is only one of the foundational entry points that leads us into the glory of God, it is the first step. If we do not take time to be thankful for what we have, we will not be thankful for what He wants to give us. The more we give thanks to God, the closer we become to his glory.

Thanksgiving is not a New Testament phenomenon. In fact it can be seen throughout the Old Testament and especially in Leviticus chapter 7 where an offering was given out of thankfulness. What's interesting though, is it was never all that was done.

Thanksgiving was always given alongside something else in the offering process and the result seems to always lead to the manifest presence of God's glory.

Matthew Henry's Commentary says this about thanksgiving:
"Let us bring our sacrifices to this altar, and to this our High Priest, and offer them up by him. The sacrifice of praise to God, we should offer always. In this are worship and prayer, as well as thanksgiving."

It's evident that worship, prayer and thanksgiving are part of the sacrifice of praise, it's almost as though scripture is telling us to start with thanksgiving and you'll end up with His glory.

Colossians 4:2 says "continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." If we give thanks, praise Him for who He is and bow down in worship, the Lord will draw us into His throne and manifest His glory among us. It begins with an act of our will, which leads to an invitation from Him and resolves with Him choosing to release Himself and all His glory on us.

I want you to spend 15 minutes throughout each day over the next week thanking God. If you want to, you could then drop a comment back on the Cross Rhythms website about what He starts speaking to you.

Remember 15 minutes each day, broken up like this:

5 mins on what He's already done in your life
5 mins on what He's doing in your life
5 mins on what you'd like Him to do in your life

If you try it for one week, I'll bet not only will you realise He's done more than you thought, He's doing more than you've remembered and He's got a lot more He wants to do.