Thanksgiving Spills Out

As Paul wrote his great letter to the church in Colossae, he was writing to Christians whom he had never met.  He wanted to make them understand the depth of his love and concern for them, even though he might not know them personally.

In Col. 2:1-2 he told them that he wanted them to know his desire that they be encouraged and unified in their knowledge and understanding of God’s love for them.  He continues with instructions on how they should live since they know about this love.  I particularly like the way The Message Bible expresses Col. 2:6-7  My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

I love that thought.  It’s important for us to study God’s Word, but there comes a time when we have to get out of the classroom and into the real world where our responsibility is to live out the things we have learned.  We’ll never know all that we need to know, but we can’t spend all our time learning without getting out and living.  And when we do that living in the presence of other people, we can’t do it without thanksgiving spilling out.  You can’t run with a cup full of water without water spilling out, and you can’t live with a heart full of Jesus without thankfulness spilling out.  What a wonderful thing to spill out on the people we come in contact with every day.