‘Thank you,’ said Joshua, ‘is the most powerful word we can say to God.’

In a country where the word power conjures up distinct images, not least of all images connected to the unseen spiritual realm, Joshua’s words stopped me in my tracks. Here, many people believe in powers that have potentially hostile intent to dominate ordinary men and women’s lives and that those powers need appeasing.

We ourselves, along with other Christians, have strongly opposed these hostile powers and undoubtedly there are times when it is right and proper to vanquish the unseen evil influences in our lives. But I began to wonder; are there times when words of thanksgiving to God hold a greater power than the fear of evil, or a rebuke of the devil? Does genuine gratitude to God have the power to keep us safe and anchored in God?

I’m not sure I have it worked out yet. Events at home and events in the world that threaten life and freedom, can prevent me from keeping my thoughts tidy and ordered. My spirit groans and I can’t always find my way to thankfulness, can’t see the power in a simple ‘thank you.’ Yet Joshua’s words set me thinking.

Genuine gratitude to God and others for everything: joy, triumphs, sadness and sorrow, reminds me how much I have received. Not least of all, that I have been saved from ruin, redeemed and am sustained by God alone and that, despite my shortcomings, still receive grace every moment of every day.

But what stumbles me? The terrors of the world or the subtle voice whispering, ‘Independence,’ suggesting that I might be lord of my own life? It is the latter, tempting me to exert my own authority. Fooling me and keeping me from God as I hand control of my life to another and the world, through whom that other works, and seeks to crush me.

But Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Through his bleeding hands on the Cross He defeated the powers, inviting me to follow Him as He continues to rescue and restore me. Grasping the reality of what He has done gives me the desire to let gratitude to Him stand as the bed rock of my life.

But it is not easy. There is cruelty and suffering in this world; God is mocked and man exalted which reminds me thanksgiving is not a task to undertake flippantly or causally. Left to my own devices I would soon tire of trying to be grateful.

Rather, I want to discipline myself to allow God’s Spirit to work in me, keeping my heart open, my eye focused and paying attention to His life made manifest in the ordinary – Christ at work in people in our world. From that arise words of thanks for His faithful provision, the beauty of creation, the healing of illness and the precious memory of friends already departed. All allow God to grow in me the discipline of maintaining a thankful heart that resonates with my life. And in declaring our thanks to God in the hearing of the world; we are declaring that God truly is God.