We talked about Paul’s thankfulness for the Philippians because of all the things they had done for him, but it is interesting to note that he had similar feelings for the Christians in Colossae even though he didn’t know them personally and they hadn’t done special things for him.  How could that be?

Look at Col. 1:3-4  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.  Notice what Paul said.  He still had the same spirit of thankfulness for them, but it was not because of what they had done for him, it was because of what he had heard about them.

Many of us spend much of our time while we are driving listening to the radio.  We have different interests, so we tune to different stations.  If we like sports, we tune to a sports station.  If we like Christian music, we tune to a Christian music station.  If we like news, we tune to a news/talk station.  We hear what we are tuned in to.  I love the parallel that we hear good things about people when we are tuned in to hear and focus on the good in people.  It’s easy to find negative things about people.  There are many sources for that.  But are we tuned in to hear positive things about people.  Paul was thankful for the Colossians because he had tuned in to hear the good things about their faith.   If we search for the positive, we can find it.  Check to see what you are tuned in to.  It can have a great effect on our thankfulness.