SPINNING MY GEARS: Thankfulness - The Purest Form of Worship

      In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States of America at the time, set aside the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving. Beyond the secular, however, being thankful has spiritual value. While worship on this side of eternity consists of confession, contrition, intercession and petition, these elements will lose their purpose in Heaven. A day approaches when there will be no sin to confess in Christ’s Kingdom. On that day, there will be no sorrow nor any remaining needs.

      Nevertheless, while some elements of today’s worship will pass away, God’s desire for pure worship shall remain. All that will be left when we worship together in Heaven is thanksgiving. For this reason, I contend that while we await Christ’s imminent return, the purest form of worship can be found in thanksgiving.

         • Worship is God’s ultimate priority. Worship is the only proper response creation can have in the face of the Creator. When Jesus was confronted by Pharisees who told him to rebuke his disciples for praising Him in Luke 19, He responded, “If they kept quiet, the stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). You and I were created as the crowning jewel of God’s creation. Humanity holds a special place in the ecosystem of all of God’s creating wonders. If all of creation declares the majesty of the One by whom they were created (Psalm 19:1), how important do you think it is that we worship God? Nothing else in God’s good universe was made with a spiritual self that can commune with the Almighty. We were created uniquely for worship compared to stones, trees, breezes, sunsets or any other part of the Animal Kingdom. We were created in His image. We exist to bring glory to God.

         • Worship is an Attitude of the heart. We learn from God’s post-exilic prophets that God’s desire for obedient worship cannot be found in outward actions or rituals. When God delivered the oracle of the Word for Israel to Malachi, the nation worked hard to maintain their sacrificial systems. They did everything the Law prescribed, yet the Lord rebuked them for failing to worship Him. Malachi recorded the Lord’s words to the priests of that day: “And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart” (Mal. 2:1-2). What, then, is worship? Worship is an attitude of the heart. It is our entire person expressing genuine love, reverence and adoration to God.

         • Thanksgiving is all that remains of the sacrificial rituals. The Law generally prescribes five different types of offerings and sacrifices:

         — Burnt offerings were considered voluntary to express thanks, devotion and commitment to God. This first type of sacrifice was to be wholly consumed by the fire placed on the altar, symbolizing the complete consecration of the Lord. No portion of the burnt offering was shared between the priests (except the hide) because it belonged wholly to the Lord. Such an offering should be observed as prescribed for the church today (although in different terms). We no longer must find a lamb or calf that is without blemish because, with the imputed righteousness of Christ, Christians are consecrated wholly to the Lord as our sacrifice of thanks! Paul wrote about our place as a spiritual sacrifice when he sent the letter to the Romans. Romans 12:1 offers the appeal “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” The meaning of this command is found in the complete consecration of our lives to God’s purposes.

         — Grain offeringswere also voluntary forms of worship. The grain offering was taken up by the one who would worship God as they remembered that the fruit of the field came to them by God’s good design and purposes. They acknowledge the Lord’s favor and unmerited goodwill toward the one who worships Him. Grain offerings are expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving.

         — Peace Offerings prescribed by the Old Testament were special expressions of thanksgiving and fellowship. What makes peace offerings distinct from the burnt and grain counterparts is that the worshipers are permitted to share in them. Rather than the offering being completely consumed on the altar, God permitted participants of the peace offerings to eat some in communion with God as a symbol of His ongoing provision. Three out of five sacrifices the Old Testament describes point to a thankful heart in worship.

         — Sin offerings are the first that we will discuss that do not focus on thanksgiving. Rather, the sin offering existed for Israel as a means of atoning for their sin. The sacrifice was to vicariously take the place of a sinner so that it could bear the penalty of their sin on their behalf. We should note that a sin offering was only effective in atoning for the sins knowingly committed by an individual. The sin offerings did not atone for the failures people committed in ignorance.

         — Trespass or Guilt offerings addressed sins of ignorance. Once a year, the high priest of Israel would be permitted to take the blood of the Guilt offering into the Holy of Holies and apply it to the mercy seat of God. This blood offering symbolized the payment of sin and enabled the people of Israel to maintain their close walk with God. However, these sacrifices fell short in atoning for sin because the people who offered them were conscripted to sin. Even when they were justified, they walked in sinfulness. The author of Hebrews reveals God’s plan perfectly when he declared that while “it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with” the rights of blood, “the heavenly things themselves” have “better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:23-24).

      Today, Christ does not need to “offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own... but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:25-26). Today, there is no need for repeated sacrifice to purify sin because we have a perfect sacrifice in Jesus Christ, but our thanksgiving remains.

         • Thanksgiving can be isolated from other spiritual affections. Many different affections should be associated with genuine worship. Joy, peace, hope, love, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, goodness and faithfulness all come to mind as I remember the characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). None of these characteristics are reliable by themselves, though. When we look at the passage in Galatians 5, I often emphasize that the word “fruit” is singular. The fruit of the spirit is all-encompassing. These characteristics are unreliable when they exist by themselves. If we separate any of these characteristics from the others, they tend to become man-focused. Unlike other attributes of a worshiping heart, thankfulness can stand alone. There is a reason Psalm 100 instructs us to “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, bless His name.” Thankfulness is both the beginning of sincere worship and the product of effective worship.

      Last year, Scott Aniol wrote an article entitled “Thanksgiving: The Primary Worship Response.” The article highlighted gratefulness as the greatest of all spiritual affections. He offered three reasons for this:

         • Gratitude is not a feeling. It is like other spiritual affections. If I felt sad, I could pick myself up by watching a comedy or doing something I enjoy. If pressed, what would you say it feels like to be grateful? I doubt you can answer that question without using some circular definition. I can describe the feeling of loneliness: it feels empty, pointless, and sad. I can describe the feeling of joy: it feels uplifted, excited, and hopeful. But what does it feel like to be thankful? This is one of the reasons why thankfulness can be isolated from other spiritual affections.

         • Gratitude always has an object. Unlike feelings, which can come and go, gratitude is tied to an object. Many of you took the opportunity to share with your family and friends what you were thankful for on Thanksgiving. Remember, the most essential aspect of Thanksgiving is not recounting what we are grateful for but who we are thankful to. For example, I’m thankful to you, reader, for forgiving the last sentence, which ended in a preposition. We should realize that everything we are grateful for comes from God. The folly of humanity has been getting these prepositions (forandto) mixed up. Despite God’s glory being seen throughout all creation, “although they (humanity) knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking” (Rom. 1:21).

         • Gratitude cannot be worked up independently. Since gratitude always has an object, it can only be worked up with something. When we are thankful people, we are worshiping people. It is how the Lord will accept our worship as pleasing before Him. Being grateful is not just our privilege, considering all that God has done for us, but also our responsibility. Paul wrote the church in Colossae to say in Colossians 3:15, “let the peace of God rule in your hearts; to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” Let us be thankful!