Back in the ‘80s we used to sing a chorus taken from Scripture (Psalm 27:6; Hebrews 13:15). The song was written by Kirk Dearman. It went like this:

We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.
We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.

And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of thanksgiving;
And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of joy.

I thought it was kind of odd at the time … the idea of pairing praise with sacrifice … but I’ve since realized what these writers in Scripture meant. Sometimes our praise must start as something that seems hard to do. It begins with a choice to turn our mind from negative thoughts about how life sucks to recognizing the goodness and grace of God at work in us. And when we choose to “sacrifice” in that way, we find that feelings of genuine praise and thanksgiving inevitably follow.

I’ve just finished a wonderful book that I’d like to recommend to you if you haven’t read it already. Written by a Canadian, Ann Voskamp, it’s entitled One Thousand Gifts. My neighborhood Bible study group is going to be reading it together this summer and coming together to discuss its main points. I don’t imagine we’ll even scratch the surface of the insights she shares. One theme that she revisits throughout the book, though, is her discovery of the secret to real life — the life that Jesus promised in John 10:10. In a nutshell, she says she believes it’s found in giving thanks for life as we find it. Whether it’s ugly or sublime, exciting or numbingly boring, every day we can discover countless gifts that come to us from our heavenly Father. When we take note of them and take the time to thank Him for them, we find our hearts changed in the process. And joy is the unexpected result.

I don’t know about you, but I think I struggle with the sacrifice of praise for more reasons than just being busy or distracted. I think it’s because of a nasty disposition I inherited from our ancestors, Adam and Eve. Instead of responding in gratitude for all the wonderful gifts they enjoyed in the Garden of Eden (including the very presence and fellowship of their Creator), they (with the help of Satan) took note of what they could not and did not have. And this made them resentful towards God. Taking their eyes off their gift-filled life, they became obsessed with what was being denied them. (Never thinking that maybe their good Creator had denied it to them for a good reason!)

This obsession of wanting what they couldn’t have spawned other destructive attitudes … anger, for one. (Manifested in Cain, their son, in such a flagrant way.) Following the Fall, Adam and Eve also became willful, proud, and independent. (Who was God to tell them what they could and couldn’t do? After all, they knew everything now, including the difference between good and evil.) Their lack of gratitude caused them to see everything through the filter of sin and just like that, just as God had said, Adam and Eve “died” to a life of joy with Him.

When we come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior and are restored to our original relationship with the Father, we’re given the opportunity to begin again, to experience life as it was originally intended to be. Too often, though, we bring our old attitudes of ingratitude with us. Have you ever noticed how many times the New Testament writers encourage us to “rejoice in the Lord always“, to “give thanks for all things“, and to “be joyful always, giving thanks in all circumstances“? Obviously, God knows that we need to exercise this sacrifice of praise in order to successfully live out a life of grace. Paul told the Colossians they should be “overflowing with thankfulness” because of the blessings they had received in Christ. If we never received any other gift in life, wouldn’t His sacrifice for our sin be enough to offer continual praise to God?

Yet … how many of us live out our Christians lives as if we’re being deprived of neat stuff offered by the world? As if serving our Father is only drudgery and pain? We need to have our eyes opened so we can see our lives as they really are … full of thousands upon thousands of gifts freely given to us from our loving Father. Some gifts from Him we share together (like the wonders and complexity of nature) and others are individually designed for us (like the loving relationships we find in our friends and family). Sure, we have difficulties and life isn’t perfect, but this doesn’t mean we can’t have joy. Right now. All the time. Jesus promised it to His disciples, so I know we can have it. But He said it was a byproduct of thankful obedience to the Father.

It’s easy to become unbalanced in our quest for a joyful life. Like we talked about last month, there’s a difference between levity and a careless attitude toward life and true Christian joy. But we can also miss out by being too focused on the serious nature of our calling, thinking that if we allow ourselves to enjoy too much the gifts of the here and now, we might become too worldly in our focus. Scripture does tell us to be careful to avoid “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). As E. Stanley Jones wrote, there is an aspect to the world that has a “bite” in it, a sting from the serpent. The world’s system and philosophy opposes God and tries to draw us away from Him. That is what we need to recognize and avoid.

But … and this is where the balance must be carefully applied … Paul also wrote to Timothy that God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).  The world without the “bite” in it can be enjoyed without any sense of guilt or fear because it comes from the Father’s hand. When we understand everything we are in Christ, the world’s temptations and attitudes no longer have power over us. As Paul pointed out in another passage, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God” (1 Corinthians 3:21-4:1).

Because of who we are, dearly beloved children of God, we ought to be the most joyful people on the planet. But how often do we see this in the church at large? It has become rather unfashionable of late to view the world as God’s gift to us. We somehow think that it diminishes God’s glory if we say He created all this for us. Doesn’t it sound so much more humble to contend that we are just like the other animals we share the earth with—no more special or important than they are in the cycle of life?

Yes, it sounds good but it’s not a biblical view. The three-in-One creator God was obviously pleased and excited when man was created (see Genesis 1:26-27). We were different from all the rest of creation in that we shared His image. While I agree that we shouldn’t become puffed up in our importance apart from Him, there’s no danger of that happening if we remember that the world (apart from sin) was God’s love gift to us, and He intended for us to enjoy it with Him in loving relationship.

If we forget this important truth, we stop being thankful. We see the world as just a ho-hum reality or an existence to be scratched out by our own ingenuity and power. It stops being a life of wonder and joy. This is what Ann Voskamp is trying to awaken her readers to– the joy of noticing the big and small gifts that God lavishes on us simply because He is good and He loves us. When we take the time and trouble to notice, we discover He planned it all for our enjoyment, as something to be shared in fellowship with Him. Yes, sometimes it involves pain and suffering. Paul said we should expect to share in His sufferings if we follow Him. But like Jesus, we can still have joy because the Father offers His help and comfort no matter what we are going through.

On page 224 of her book Ann writes, “I can hear Him, what He is telling the whole world and even me here: this is for you. The lover’s smile in the morning, the child’s laughter down the slide, the elder’s eyes at eventide: this is for you. And the earth under your feet, the rain over your face upturned, the stars spinning all round you in the brazen glory: this is for you, you, you. These gifts are for you … so count the ways He loves, never stop … and though you tremble and you wonder, though the world is ugly, it is beautiful, and you can slow and trust and receive each moment as grace.”

As I take the time to notice, I see that God is speaking love over me in every circumstance of my life. It isn’t narcissistic or self-centered for me to do this, as I once feared. Bringing the sacrifice of praise to Him for all the ways He showers love on me every day is something that’ll actually set me free from my self-absorbed fears and doubts. I’ll be able to love others better once I truly understand the depth of His love for me.

But it’s a life we’ll have to cultivate, because it doesn’t come easily, even for those who have been born again by His Spirit. As Ann puts it (page 223-224), “Every breath’s a battle between drudgery and gratitude and we must keep thanks on the lips so we can sip from the holy grail of joy.”

I want to learn how to sip from the holy grail of joy. How about you? It takes practice to see and give thanks for “every good and perfect gift [that] is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). But as we choose to focus on the goodness of God rather than what we don’t have, we will be able to live as God intended us to. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

The Westminster catechism asks the question, “What is the chief end of man?” Here’s the simple answer (to quote the shortened form): “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever!” If you aren’t enjoying Him as much as you’d like, perhaps the answer is simpler than you thought. Perhaps it’s as simple as giving thanks.

Questions to ponder: Is joy an outflow of your relationship with Christ? If not, what attitudes are fueling your discontentment?