I Was Just Thinking … About the Gratitude of Faith

The Bible clearly teaches that thanksgiving is essential to prayer and fellowship with God. We should never draw near to God without expressing our thanks. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, and bless his name” (Psalm 100:4). Thanksgiving should accompany all our prayer requests. “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Just before the command for us to call upon God in the day of trouble, there is the command, “Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 50:14). Likewise right after the command to “pray without ceasing” comes the command: “in all circumstances, give thanks …” (1 Thessalonians 5:17–18).

We need these command to be thankful right alongside the commands to pray because those needs and problems which impel us to prayer tend to make us murmur and complain against God. But prayer which comes from a rebellious heart cannot be uttered with any faith, and according to James 1:6, no unbelieving person should be encouraged to think that God will answer his prayers. However, faith flourishes in a heart where petitions to God are accompanied by gratitude.

Our inclination is to focus our attention on the problems that are presently distressing us, and forget the many blessings we are enjoying. That’s why God commands us to “consider what great things he has done for us” (1 Samuel 12:24). When we deliberately count our many blessings, then the things which God has done for us build our confidence that he will keep on doing great things for us. In 2 Corinthians 1:10 Paul recalled that God “delivered us from so deadly a peril.” Consequently he concluded that “on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”

But gratitude does more than merely strengthen our faith. There are at least two places in the Bible where an expression of praise or thanksgiving is regarded as being an essential part of faith itself. In 2 Chronicles 20 Israel was gravely threatened by an invasion from the southeast. In verse 20 King Jehoshaphat commanded, “Believe in the Eternal, your God, and you will be established,” but then he went on to appoint people who were to praise God as they marched forth against this army that greatly outnumbered them. “And when they began to sing and praise, the Eternal set an ambush against the men … who had come against Judah, so [the enemy] was routed” (vs 22).

A similar event occurred in the New Testament. There were ten lepers who lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13). Jesus responded by instructing them to show themselves to the priests. They went, and on the way they discovered that their leprosy had vanished. But only one of the lepers turned back to thank Jesus and praise God. To this man, and not to the other nine, Jesus said, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well” (vs 19). What made this healed leper’s faith different from that of the others was that he was grateful and let Jesus know it. So his thanksgiving was an essential part of the faith by which he was healed.

We must always remember that thanksgiving and praise are a genuine part of faith, not just by the mouthing of certain words, but by speaking from a heartfelt conviction of glad we are with God because he is gracious to us.

Daniel P. Fuller
October, 1977