This post is the second in a series of posts on the topic of “remaining in love.” To read the first post and the introduction, click here.
Yesterday, I talked about taking time each day to read I Corinthians 13, and spending 20-30 days reflecting on one basic question: What insights does this passage have about God’s love?
Today, I want to encourage you to consider another practice that I believe can help all of us “remain” in love with God. Let me start with Paul’s words in Colossians 2.
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Here are two initial insights from this text.
- Paul again affirms that “remaining” follows “receiving.” To receive Christ is to have an initial “experience” of God’s love and grace in your life. To follow Christ is to have a continual “experience of God’s love and grace in your life. It’s about remaining!
- My thought from verse seven was this: Thanksgiving keeps me rooted in Christ! When our lives are overflowing with thanksgiving, we stay “rooted and built up in him.
As I stated in the first post of this series, if today we find our lives defined more by fear than love, that is a reminder that we need to “reinvest” ourselves in understanding and experiencing God’s love. Another simple practice you might consider?
Say thank you!
Challenge yourself every day to say thank you to as many people as you can and for as many different things as you can.
If you are out to eat at lunch and the waiter or waitress brings you a glass of water, look them in the eye and say, “thank you.”
If you wake up in the morning with a roof over your head, say “thank you.”
If while walking to your car, you notice some pretty leaves on the ground, say, “thank you.”
You get the idea.
Say “thank you” for as many things as you can. You just might begin to see things a little bit differently.
Why?
Because saying “thank you” serves as an important reminder.
All of life is a gift.
Every breathe we take is a gift.
Our lives are fully funded by God’s grace and love.