Making Yourself Joyfully Grateful (Colossians 1:12).

Sunday August 23, 2026

Introduction

Most of us would not have put consistent, joyful gratitude on the same level as good works or endurance. Paul does. To God, a life that is not marked by thankful joy is incomplete.

Job 1:21

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

How can Job say this? Is it just a feeling? In other words, are we dependent on how we feel if we are going to be thankful with joy?

Col 1:9-12

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

Main idea:

Because the Father has already qualified us to share the inheritance of the saints in light, every believer can (and must) give thanks with joy in every circumstance by setting the whole person on God’s character and purposes.

1. The Ground of Thanksgiving: The Father Has Already Qualified Us

The word “qualified” means He has made us adequate, sufficient, fit. It is an aorist tense—completed action.

The language of “share” and “inheritance” recalls Israel receiving their allotted portion in the Promised Land.

Num 34:2

When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance …

2. The Practice of Thanksgiving: Set Your Mind on God’s Purposes in the Situation

1Th 5:16-18

Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

All three verbs are imperatives. What is often missing in Christianity is this purposefulness – God commands me to be so I must be.

Paul does write, “be thankful for everything,” but “be thankful in everything.” (endurance in, thankful in).

Now a commandment to thanksgiving begins to make sense: You can deliberately set your mind on specific truths about God and His purposes.

Rom 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:5–6 tells us that the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace; the mind set on the flesh is death.

Rom 8:5-6

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

“mind set” (phroneo): intellect, affection, and will all set on something.

Christ is our model.

In Christianity, you do nothing without God’s help and power:

Rom 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

3. The Power for Thanksgiving: Spirit and Human Agency Together.

We are new creations. God is already at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Phi 2:12-13

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Human responsibility is not cancelled. But unaided human effort will fail.

We do what we can do: we look for the specific character, promise, or purpose of God that this present situation highlights and set your mind on it.

Conclusion & Application

Joyful thanksgiving is not a personality type and it is not raw willpower. It is the fruit of a mind set on the Father who has already qualified us.

Remember that the qualifying work is finished. You already have a share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

In your present situation, identify one specific truth about God’s character or purpose and set your mind, affections, and will on it.

Expect the Spirit to produce real joy and gratitude as you do so—not a feeling you manufacture, but the result of walking in the truth, the mind of Christ.

Failure, more often than not it is a failure of mindset.