Colossians 3:16
Have Gratitude in Your Heart
16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Hebrews 13:15-16
Praise God with Your Gratitude
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Gratitude and thankfulness are a part of our faith...Gratitude and thankfulness are about sharing...We share things with God and neighbor...St. Paul tells us to take the message of Jesus and sing songs from our Holy Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts...The author of Hebrew tells us to offer God our praise and openly profess His name...And we should not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices and things God is pleased...
Matthew Henry was a clergyman from England, who was born in 1662...He is well-known for his writings and commentary on the Whole Bible...He wrote six volumes interpreting the verses of the Bible and these volumes are still in print today...This exhaustive look at each verse of the Bible, covers the whole Old Testament, and the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament...When reading and needing an interpretation of a difficult verse, I often turn to Matthew Henry's comments about the Bible...Henry knew the Word of God...
Matthew Henry was a grateful man, a thankful man, and a positive person...One day he was robbed on the streets of London...J. B. Williams wrote this about the event, from the Memoirs of the Life, Character, and Writings of the Reverend Matthew Henry:
1713...March 8th...Lord's-day...In the evening I went to London...I preached Mr. [Samuel] Rosewell's evening lecture, Psalm lxxxix. 16. -- the joyful sound...As I came home I was robbed...The thieves took from me about ten or eleven shillings...My remarks upon it were, -- 1. What reason have I to be thankful to God, who have travelled so much, and yet was never robbed before?...2. What a deal of evil the love of money is the root of, that four men would venture their lives and souls, for about half a crown a piece...3. See the power of Satan in the children of disobedience...4. See the vanity of worldly wealth; how soon we may be stripped of it...How loose, therefore, we should sit to it...
Henry was not disparaging, disheartened, or negative about the event...He wrote these words in his diary that night..."Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it wasn’t much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed."...
Here we have a man who had just been robbed and he writes about and is grateful and giving thanks that he had never been robbed in the past, they only took his wallet and not his life, and even though they took all he had, it wasn't much, and he then gives thanks that it was him that was robbed, and not him doing the robbing...These are inspirational words, from a man, who chose to dwell on the positive rather than the negative...He was a man that knew God's peace...