Christ is All I Need: Thanking God for the Good

 

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.  Colossians 1:3-4

 When you see something positive in someone else, do you point it out? Do you affirm it? Encourage it? Do you worry that by doing so, you might “puff them up?” Here, Paul takes a very healthy way of encouraging the believers in Colossae, by thanking God for what He has heard about in them.

 I first learned this technique through my uncle who worked in missions in India for decades. He was never one to tell me that he was proud of me or that I had done something well, but when we prayed together, He thanked God for the spiritual growth he saw in me and the ways that God was using me in the world. This was an indirect way to affirm what God had been doing in my life without falsely assigning credit to me for it. It gave God the glory for what God had clearly done and reminded me of that at the same time. I always found it very edifying and humbling.

 You see, every good thing that is found in me, is there because of God. He is the one who developed it, created it, designed it, and uses it. I can take NONE of the credit for the good that has been worked in me, it is all because of God’s great plan and design. When I see something that has changed for the better in me, I thank God for it because I know that it is Him who has changed it in me. Likewise, when I hear that people have come to believe in Jesus, have had their lives changed and are filled with joy and hope, I thank God for that as well. It is only through God drawing people to Himself that anyone can come to Him (John 6:44).

Here’s the Thing: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17) If you see something good, it came from God, and He is the One deserving of thanks for it.