Whatever You Do, Give Thanks

Paul casts the net of gratitude over the whole of life: whatever you do in word or deed… giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Not just in church, not just in our prayers, not just over meals, but in everything we say and do, gratitude is to be the accompanying note. The "whatever" leaves nothing out: the work, the chores, the conversations, the ordinary tasks of an ordinary day are all to be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus," and all with thanks.

This lifts gratitude out of the category of special religious moments and weaves it into the fabric of daily life. We tend to confine thanksgiving to designated times, grace before a meal, a thankful prayer on Sunday, while the rest of the day rolls on ungratefully. But Paul envisions a life in which thanks runs through everything, a continual undercurrent of gratitude beneath all our words and deeds. The dishes washed with thanks, the email written with thanks, the task completed with thanks, all done in Jesus' name, all offered up with gratitude to the Father.

Carry thanksgiving into the "whatever" of today, the unremarkable words and deeds that fill your hours. Do them in Jesus' name, and do them with thanks.