Overcome Temptation with Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving this week, I wanted to remind us of the spiritual power — the focusing, strengthening, and purifying power — of gratitude. Thanksgiving, of course, is not a Christian holiday, but it can be an especially sweet and meaningful holiday for Christians. So what word from God might help us get ready to celebrate well — to honor God while our whole nation stops to give thanks?

As we head into the week this verse has been at the forefront of my mind and heart. It may seem like a strange verse to choose, but stick with me:

Ephesians 5:4: Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

The apostle Paul wants us, as Christians, to remove all filthiness and foolishness and crude joking and any other kind of bad or hurtful language from our conversations, and to instead, fill those conversations with thanksgiving. “But instead let there be thanksgiving.” Replace the old ways you used to talk with gratitude to God for all he is for you and all he’s done for you and all he promises to do for you.

He’s describing a kind of spiritual displacement. How do you get air out of a container? You can’t — unless you fill the container with something else. You drive the air out with water. That’s what’s happening in Ephesians 5:4. Do you struggle with sinful ways of talking? Do you want to stop speaking in those ways? Then thank God for something. Drive out filthiness and foolishness and harshness and crude joking with gratitude. Fill your mouth (and mind and heart) so full of thanksgiving that there’s less and less room for sin. That’s how gratitude strengthens and purifies a soul.

So, this week (and then every week after), let thankfulness — specific and expressed gratitude to God — drive out filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking in your conversations. But don’t stop there. Let thankfulness drive out other sins too. Let thankfulness — specific and expressed gratitude to God — drive out selfish or suspicious thoughts toward your spouse. Let thankfulness — specific and expressed gratitude to God — drive out impatience toward your children. Let thankfulness force out the envy you might feel toward your friends or co-workers. Let thankfulness remind you of just how many reasons you have not to click on that site or indulge that lust. Let thankfulness draw you out of bed to meet with God when you’d rather sleep for another 30 minutes. Give thanks so specifically, so consistently, so joyfully that Satan can’t even get a word in.

My exhortation this morning, Cities Church, is that we overcome temptation with gratitude.