Here you can find the video script written for our sixth session as a reference.
I have to confess, I used to think thanking God in prayer was kind of the thing you just had to, a tip of the hat before you got to the best part — your lists of demands.
But have you ever noticed, that even in the very process of expressing gratitude to God, you may actually receive back more than you give? God’s just wired it up like that.
Just by thanking our Creator, we begin to acknowledge that all of life is a gift. Its blessings are undeserved; even our every breath. It helps break that negative bias, so ingrained into our core — that life isn’t just filled with tests and trials and all sorts of trouble. But it’s beautifully peppered with wonderful things. Amazing blessings that are so easy to miss.
Just by taking the time to notice, and give thanks, it helps quench that sense of entitlement — this idea that creeps in, suggesting that we are somehow ‘owed’ more good things, and that God hasn’t already given us so many of them.
Yet this simple process of saying thanks lifts our eyes upwards. It takes our gaze off ourselves, and the things we think will satisfy. It helps us realise — it’s personal.
Someone has blessed you.
Someone magnificent.
The God of the Universe sees you, and knows you. He knows your needs.
Thankfulness reminds us that he provides, and that he has done so many times in the past. We’re not cursed if others receive things that we haven’t. In fact, when one part of the body is blessed, the whole body is blessed. And love means we prefer one another.
In all this, thankfulness actually brings peace and calm. It’s a reminder to us that God’s in control, and that we don’t have to be. Even if the world ended tomorrow, we would still be safe in his presence.
Thankfulness reminds us that there’s more to come. That our infinite and eternal God never runs out of good gifts. He never stops giving, never stops blessing. There is always more to come.
Thankfulness helps us through the trials. To get our eyes off ourselves, to stop us being consumed with ourselves. They help us see the presence of another. They help us see future glories, even if now, for a little while, we have been grieved by various trials.
Thankfulness sees a bigger timeline, and sees this life in its true context: a flicker at the beginning of eternity. Thankfulness helps set our hope in the future, as we meditate on heaven, and the new creation, and all that God has got in store. That’s what gets us through today.
In an earlier video we talked about how lament and gratitude are joined at the hip, like a mirror image of one another. They are the before and after of God moving in our lives and both express our utter dependance on God.
Over these last six years I’ve actually found that when I’ve put all my questions to one side and just worship and praise God in a Spirit of thankfulness, I’ve actually felt his presence like nothing else. It actually happened a lot while listening to this album, African Praise, which I can’t really explain. It’s just so joyful — and it’s powerful.
It’s definitely one of the tools of contentment, and helps bring us peace. But there’s two more things I want to talk about in this video — two things which I think are at the core of contentment, which the Apostle Paul models for us.
The Secret of Contentment
In Philippians 4 Paul states that he has learnt the secret of contentment in facing every situation, no matter how bad or good. Which is an incredible skill, and I think is one of the reasons he was so used by God. He wasn’t afraid — he didn’t run away from difficult things. He instead ran through them, to what was on the other side.
But what he doesn’t do, in chapter 4, is tell you what that secret is. He tells you he’s learnt the secret of contentment, but doesn’t tell you anything about what that might be, other than the fact that the Holy Spirit is involved — stating “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”.
I found that mildly puzzling for a few years, because there must have been a technique, a knack or a mindset involved that helped him lean into God, and see things in a particular way.
Eventually I realised that all you have to do is rewind a little bit — just one chapter in fact, to Philippians 3. And I think he shares something right at the heart of contentment:
“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”.
He’s let go.
#1 — Letting go
Paul was a very educated, qualified and privileged individual. He was born a Roman citizen and a Pharisee, and he probably could have lived quite a comfortable life if he wanted to, as a part of an elite, just writing and teaching. But he completely let go of all of that stuff.
I think you see this most pronounced in Acts 20, where Paul sets a course straight towards Jerusalem, straight towards trouble, which leads to his imprisonment and ultimately his death. He knows it in advance — he’s been warned through the Spirit, who I think is giving him a choice. Yet he comes out with this beautiful line in verse 24:
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the grace of God.”
He’s not clinging on to this world, or to comforts, or to leisure and pleasure. He’s not trying to amass impressive worldly achievements, good experiences or fame. He seems to have fully withdrawn all his hope from what this world can offer; and put it all into Jesus.
He still has many struggles — he’s just a normal human like us, and you can feel the depths of his emotions sometimes, especially in 2 Corinthians. But there’s something underneath that allows him to keep going. He waits on the Lord and renews his strength, every single day. He’s able to keep going, on and on. Running and not growing weary. Being able to get out of bed each day. He has a centre of gravity and a hope that no one can get to. He’s fully at God’s disposal, and that made him an extremely dangerous Christian.
So a question we could ask ourselves is this: Have we fully withdrawn our hope from the world? Are we fully at God’s disposal? Or are our hearts still tied to lots of other things around us, which in fact hold us down and make us vulnerable?
#2 — Meditating on just how much he’s been forgiven
And the second thing he does is meditate on his own unworthiness.
You see this theme develop as he writes his letters. He’s so aware that, in his old life, he persecuted the church. And while he starts out saying “he’s the least of all the apostles” in 1 Corinthians, it progresses to being “the least of all the saints” in Ephesians, before branding himself as the “chief of sinners” in 1 Timothy.
In one sense he really seems to get hung up on his past life, and can’t seem to get over it or forgive himself.
But what I actually think he’s doing is meditating on his own unworthiness — meditating on just how much he’s been forgiven — to kill that sense of entitlement that we all tend to struggle with; that God should only give us good things.
This I think magnifies his sense of gratitude and the grace he’s received through the gospel. It puts him in God’s debt, and kills off any sense that God is holding back good things that he might think he has the right to receive.
We all need grace
As someone who was born into a Christian family and knew God from a young age, I think it took a bit longer to fully see just how much grace I’m in need of. I never persecuted the church or killed anyone. I never did anything super-bad. But as I’ve got more and more acquainted with my own heart and seen what’s in there, it’s like “oh gosh, Lord help!!”.
We’ve all been forgiven much
As a Christian, all the sins I’ve committed in a sense are far worse, because I knew the truth. I should have known better. Each falling short came from a lack of faith. And the Bible says we will never be tempted beyond what we can bear, and God will always provide a way out.
Which means, everything I’ve done wrong is 100% my own fault. No excuses, I have to take full responsibility. I wasn’t lost. I knew God. I did it anyway. I’m so in need of his grace and mercy!
Jesus says “Whoever has been forgiven much, loves much”. We’ve all been forgiven much, even if we were kind of “born into grace” — which is a huge privilege. We just need to be able to see it.
Grasping the true extent of your forgiveness propels us into gratitude, and kills off that sense that we should never go through hard things, never be refined by fire, never learn to trust God in the storm, or experience all kinds of weakness.
Paul heard the Lord say “my power is made perfect in weakness.” And actually goes on to say “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”.
God uses weak people to do amazing things. Which is a wonderful thought. So never count yourself out.
Progressing in the art of contentment, I think, can very much be life of death for your faith when you walk through difficult things. But yet an incredibly valuable treasure, often born out of dark times, because it becomes so necessary.
If only __________
Perhaps as a final thought, why not take a moment to complete this sentence: “If only ________________”
If only this could happen… if only that never happened…. What’s the very first thing that comes to mind? Quite often this sentence reveals where our hope is. Do you feel it does that for you? Does it reveal something to let go of?
And what, have you found, has helped you progress in the subtle art of contentment?
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ve no idea if anyone’s really going to watch these videos, but I’ve certainly been massively blessed by writing them!
And if it did bless you in anyway, we’d love to hear from you, whether that’s dropping a comment, or an email, or saying hi on a Sunday. It just helps us know whether to produce stuff like this in the future, or to try different things.
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