How to Pray When… Our Hearts Overflow with Thanksgiving
July 6, 2025
Preached by Ron Smith
Scripture Reading
Colossians 3:15-17
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I asked the staff and a few others what they are thankful for about the church. Here are some of their responses:
Grateful to see more and more new people be welcomed into our church family.
Grateful to see so many people see the church as a place to come and serve.
Grateful that the guys that come Thursday mornings for sermon discussion and breakfast are becoming closer friends.
Grateful that we rarely worry about preaching anything hard from the Bible because our people love to hear the Bible. We are hungry for the Word of God.
Grateful for the Christian brotherhood and sisterhood among the various ministries.
Grateful this is a church my family sees as a blessing in our lives.
Grateful for volunteers in children’s ministry who love on our little ones each Sunday.
Grateful for the many ways I see people caring for one another through prayer and deeds of kindness and encouragement.
Grateful for the thoughtful liturgy we use in our service that allows us to worship.
There are lots of things beyond what is going on in the church that we can be thankful for and should be thankful for. Being thankful fills us with joy as we consider all God has done. It keeps us humble as we recognize we can’t do life without his help. Being thankful encourages us, lifts us up, gives us hope. And it’s contagious – when you are around someone who is thankful, you find reasons to be thankful too. Being thankful is hugely beneficial.
And yet, despite all of those benefits, we can so easily forget to be thankful. It is easy to get focused on problems, be cynical of others, or disgruntled when things don’t go our way. Or it could be the total opposite, and we forget to be thankful because things are going so well. We get comfortable with success; we have plenty of food; we have adequate money. We fail to see the hand of God that is behind all the ordinary daily blessings.
Well, forgetting to be thankful for the Christian is not an option. Our hearts should overflow with thanksgiving. In this passage Paul mentions thanksgiving in all three verses we read. It is important.
So, what we want to do today is answer three questions: why should we be thankful; what fuels our thankfulness; and where is thankfulness to be expressed? And throughout we will consider how can we pray in practical ways with hearts that overflow with thanksgiving.
Why should we be thankful?
There are a couple of answers I would like to offer. The first is straight forward: because we are commanded to. At the very end of verse 15, Paul says, “And be thankful.” Straight up command.
We need to be thankful. Yes, it is an attitude we need to develop, it is Christian character that needs to be nurtured. But more than that it is part of who we are. A Christian is constantly growing in becoming thankful. Always learning to be thankful. (Like we teach children. matchbox car.) We need to be and become thankful.
A second and perhaps more pressing reason for why we should be thankful comes from the immediate context of this command. That is because of all God has done for us in giving us a new identity in Christ. Starting in verse 1 we read,
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your[a] life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
This is who we are in Jesus. We have been raised with Christ. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. We will appear with him in glory. This new identity is being worked out in our daily lives as we are being transformed by his grace. We go from sexual immorality, anger, obscene talk to patience, kindness, and love.
We are to be thankful because only Christ can do this work within us. That is motivation. When we remember what we used to be like before Christ, when we take time to remember all that he has done for us, when we remember the greatness of his grace, the extravagance of his love, the kindness of his patience, we are thankful. He has made us into something new that is still undergoing transformation. And we don’t deserve any of it! That leads us to thankfulness.
I know that is the opposite of what we see a lot of today. It seems that these days people have a sense of entitlement. That everything is supposed to simply be given to them. That they deserve special privileges simply because they exist. But when you recognize that something has been done for you that you don’t deserve, you are thankful. Thankfulness protects our hearts from entitlement.
There is a story from the Gospels that illustrates this pretty well. Jesus was invited over for dinner by a pharisee named Simon. As they are eating, a prostitute comes in and starts washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair. But Simon was appalled by this, thinking that if Jesus was really a prophet he would have known what kind of woman she was and rejected her. But what Simon couldn’t see was this woman was expressing her need of Jesus. Simon hadn’t done anything for him that was customary for the host to do. He didn’t give Jesus anything to wash his feet with, didn’t greet him with a kiss, didn’t give oil to anoint his head. And yet, this lady did all of these things. So Jesus forgave her of her sins. This woman’s thankfulness was overflowing. She recognized her need of help, for someone to come and lift her out of her sin. Simon was comfortable in his status, no recognition of any need. He probably thought that if anything, Jesus needed him.
We need Jesus. He has done so much for us let’s be thankful.
“How to:” The next time you are praying here is something practical you can do. Instead of saying a blanket statement like, “Lord, I thank you for all you have done,” be more specific. Take time to recount all the things God has done for you this week, take time to thank him for all the things we learn from the Bible that he has done for us.
Why should we be thankful? Because it is a command and because of what Christ has done for us. Let us be and become thankful.
What fuels our thankfulness?
Now, the second question: what fuels our thankfulness? Paul gives us two things in particular that are at work in us to empower us to be thankful.
The first is to have peace in our hearts. Look in verse 15.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
What comes to your mind when you think of peace? No war. That calm that comes after a busy hectic week. Relaxing by the pool. No relational conflicts. A life of no worries.
Peace in the Bible is more than just the absence of conflict or anxieties. It has to do with wholeness, security, well-being. Peace that comes from Jesus can be found despite relational conflicts we are going through or even when the worries of this life are raging around us like storm.
It is not that there isn’t anything to be anxious about. There could be lots of worries: financial troubles, wayward kids, losing jobs, sickness, or looming deadlines. Or just simply the hecticness of life can cause anxiety: dr’s appointments, getting the kids to school, getting them to sports practices and games, church activities, dinners with friends, and on and on. But when we look to the Lord, call out to him with thanksgiving despite all of these things, his peace that surpasses all understanding, is present to guard our hearts. It doesn’t make sense. We can’t figure it out. In fact, Jesus told the disciples that he is leaving them his peace. It is a peace that is different than the world’s peace. It is security, safety, calmness, wholeness, even when there is trouble.
This kind of peace, the peace of Christ, needs to rule our hearts. Rule. This is an interesting word. This is the only place in the NT that this Greek word appears. It comes from the idea of an umpire who would direct athletic games and decide the winner. When there are competing concerns and anxieties in our life, peace needs to be the deciding factor. The peace that comes from Christ should hold sway over our hearts. It should control us.
This is what God calls us to. A heart that is ruled by his peace. When that happens, thanksgiving overflows. When chaos surrounds you and yet peace is in your heart, aren’t you thankful? You know that it couldn’t have come from you.
The peace of Christ ruling in our hearts fuels our thankfulness. And there is something else happening in us that fuels it as well.
Look in verse 16.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly fuels thankfulness. What is the word of Christ? It is the message about Christ. Or the word that is centered on Christ. And just like letting the peace of Christ rule our hearts, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly is a command. We must do this. But it is not always so easy. There are many opposing “messages of the world” that want to take up residence in us. Just think about some of the messages you hear on a regular basis, that sounds good at first, but if you were to truly follow it, it would leave you empty, bankrupt.
For example, what about: “you just gotta follow your heart.” Or similarly, "Live your truth." The problem is when following your heart or living your truth don’t turn out the way you had hoped they would, you end up disgruntled. Upset with the world. That’ s the opposite of thankfulness. Ever been around a disgruntled person, upset with everything? Nothing can go right, never happy. Never a word of thanksgiving. Not grateful at all because there is nothing to be grateful for. But the message of Christ allows us to recognize that even when things are not going the way we think they should, God is doing something. He is in control. We can be thankful.
Or another message of the world we see is captured by a line from an old poem. It says, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” We are in control of our own lives. Everything depends on me. This is nothing but pride. And pride kills thankfulness. The message of Christ pushes us to look outside of ourselves to Christ, and not inside of ourselves.
Well, there are many other messages of this world we could consider. But the point is that these messages lead us away from thankfulness. It is the message that is centered on Christ dwelling in us that leads to thankfulness.
“How to:” How can we make this practical? Noah pointed us to a definition of prayer in the first sermon of this series that is helpful. Prayer is a continuation of a conversation that God has started in his word. So, why don’t we take time to slow down and use what we are reading in the Bible to be a guide for what we should pray. If you were reading Colossians 3 in your Bible reading, maybe just slow down and linger of the words, “let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.” Take time to pray for the activities you have for that day. Take time to pray for your concerns and lay your worries at his feet. Praying Scripture lets the word of Christ dwell in our hearts and it lets the peace of Christ rule our hearts. And our hearts will overflow with thanksgiving.
Where is thankfulness to be expressed?
We have seen why we should be thankful, what fuels our thankfulness, and now let’s look at where thankfulness is to be expressed. It is clear that Paul has the context of the church in mind. In particular thankfulness is to be expressed in the personal relationships that we have with one another as the body of Christ.
We didn’t read verses 12-14, but starting in verse 12 Paul lists a bunch of attributes that we should put on: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. All of those necessitate relationships. Then he goes on in verse 13, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. None of this makes sense outside of human, face to face, relationships.
And then we come back to verse 15, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. We were called to peace in one body. The body is a reference to the church. Community Evangelical Free Church, we are called to peace together; as one body.
In verse 16, Paul continues to describe the local church gathering. He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
When the message of Christ takes up residence in our hearts, we don’t just keep it to ourselves. It is at work in us and results in our teaching one another and even admonishing or warning one another. When we talk to one another, our conversations should move towards the word. That produces thanksgiving!
Paul doesn’t stop with teaching and admonishing. There is also to be singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Songs are a prayer to the Lord. Our hearts are so full of the peace and word of Christ, that they explode with song. There is something special about singing together, isn’t it? When we gather together to sing of what God has done for us, we sing of Christ’s work on the cross in defeating sin, defeating death; we sing of the glorious future that awaits us – it is amazing. Yeah, I can sing by myself, but it is so much better when we sing together.
And all of this is with thankfulness in our hearts. It is to be heartfelt. It needs to come from our heart.
“How to:” So, practically, when we gather here in this place on a Sunday morning, recognize that the songs we sing together in unison, are prayers to the Lord. Sing them with heartfelt thankfulness. And here’s another idea. The next time you are praying with others, why not sing a song together. Express your prayers in song. (Windy)
I said the context of thankfulness is in the church. However, verse 17 the context is expanded. Paul says, And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Every moment of everyday, wherever you are, whoever you are with, whatever you are doing is a time to give thanks. Or as Paul says in other places, we are to give thanks in all circumstances. We give thanks to the Lord with our mouths. We give thanks to the Lord with our actions. And it is all through Jesus. He is the one that gives us the strength to be thankful even when all hope seems to be lost.
And when we look to Jesus, we realize that no matter what life brings us, we can be thankful. We don’t just give thanks when things are going great. When things are going “our way.” We recognize that even in the troubled moments of life, God is working his good pleasure for our good by being thankful. * Thankfulness demonstrates our belief that God is at work even though it seems like he has abandoned us. It guards our heart from doubt. Whatever we say, whatever we do, let’s give thanks to God through Jesus.
“How to:” Thinking practically of what this might look like, as you go through your day, I would encourage you to say prayer not just for what you are about to do, but also after you have done it. Even if it didn’t go the way you thought it would. Give a short prayer of thanksgiving. And don’t limit it to the major things – important business meeting, job interview, doctor’s appointment. What about going to the grocery store? Can we thank the Lord for providing the means to buy the food?
In these three verses, it all comes back to thankfulness. We need to be a church that is thankful. Thankful for God, thankful for one another. Thankful for what God is doing in me and in you. We need to be thankful even in our own private lives. Everywhere at all times, let our hearts overflow with thankfulness. If we want to pursue a culture of prayer, hearts that overflow with thankfulness will help get us there.
Sermon Discussion Questions:
Throughout the sermon there are some examples of how we can pray with hearts that overflow with thankfulness, what are some other practical ways?
What keeps us from being thankful?
Why do you think it is important to be thankful?
What are benefits of being thankful?
What rules your heart if not the peace of Christ?
What dwells in your heart if not the word of Christ?
Have you ever incorporated singing in your prayer time? Share your experience. Any tips?
How could the Psalms help us learn to be thankful?
Why is the church so important when it comes to thankfulness?