Brennan Manning: Abiding spirit of gratitude

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Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2

“Let’s say I interviewed ten people, asking each the same question — “Do you trust God?” — and each answered, “Yes, I trust God,” but nine of the then actually did not trust Him. How would I find out which one of the ragamuffins was telling the truth? I would videotape each of the ten lives for a month and then, after watching the videos, pass judgment using this criterion: the person with an abiding spirit of gratitude is the one who trusts God.

The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of life as grace — as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand. Such recognition is itself the work of grace, and acceptance of the gift is implicitly an acknowledgement of the Giver. The grateful heart cries out in the morning, “Thank you, Lord, for the gift of a new day.” And it continues to express its gratitude as the blessings unfold.”

Brennan Manning (1934-2013) in Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God (New York: HarperCollins, 2000) 24-25.

Brennan Manning has put his finger on the criterion of having an abiding spirit of gratitude and the Apostle Paul teaches us how to preserve this condition: we must devote ourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

It’s fitting Paul would put this statement in the letter to the church in Colossae. It was a flourishing city situated on a trade route that was known for it’s cool spring water and varied wares. The Colossians had access to anything a person wanted in antiquity.

We, in America, enjoy a similar situation in modernity. That’s why we need to reset our thinking daily in prayer and be watchful and thankful, so the world does not distort us into thinking either that we earned what we have or that life is found in what we have.

All we have are gifts from the Giver. Everything we have ever possessed or will ever possess has come to us as a work of grace from God. We can neither trust God nor give like Him until this abiding spirit of gratitude permeates our lives.