Article November 20, 1989 Issue

In everything give thanks

For the Christian, gratitude goes far beyond being thankful for the good one now has. It's a recognition of the infinite good of God, always at hand.

Mary Davies

When the Christ, the true idea of God that Jesus presented, enlightened Paul's thinking, he realized that the followers of Jesus, whom he had been persecuting, were serving God in the right way. Under divine guidance, he changed direction and dedicated his life to taking Christianity beyond the Jewish world. Doing this, he suffered much persecution (see II Cor. 11:23-27). Yet in his letters to the young Christian churches he consistently reminded them to give God thanks. To one he wrote, "In every thing give thanks."^{I Thess. 5:18.} He proved that accidents, injustice, illness, trials of any kind, could not separate him from the goodness of God or the love of Christ.

The Christ message, as understood in Christian Science, reveals God as the inexhaustible source of all good and as always pouring blessings upon His precious sons and daughters. God's lovingkindness is unending and never ceases under any circumstances. God never separates His children from good. He never shuts them out from His blessings. Because man is God's expression, good is the reality, the actual indestructible substance, of man's being.

When the transforming action of the Christ wakens our thought to the continuity of good, the good God is doing, we can express the same sort of wholehearted gratitude that Paul did. We are not speaking here of human emotion, a forced cheerfulness that makes the best of a bad thing, or of an unfounded faith that has no basis for saying everything is all right and that turns a blind eye on a problem. True gratitude to God does not wait for a change in material conditions or for a better human situation, as Paul showed. Rather, it recognizes the divine goodness always and already present. Things that need to change do change when in prayer we remember God's presence, trust His power, listen for the precise truth the Christ brings to thought, and understand it.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Never beyond the reach of Love