In the 1960s, a field of study was born known as “observational learning.” It focuses on the process of acquiring new behaviors by imitating others. According to experts, the methodology involves four stages: attention (noticing the behavior), retention (remembering it), reproduction (replicating the behavior) and motivation (having a reason to do it). With that in mind, I intend to draw your attention to six biblical examples of thankfulness.
The first instance is the thankfulness of Hannah, who praised God in response to receiving a great blessing. Despite being the most obvious form of thankfulness, the account of the ten lepers reveals that few return to give Him gratitude. However, 1 Samuel 2 records ten verses of Hannah’s prayer, a profound outpouring of her thankfulness to God for His decision to bless her.
The second model is Jehoshaphat, who thanked God preemptively. 2 Chronicles 20 records that three different armies aligned themselves against Israel, to which the king responded by declaring God’s power and faithfulness! He then directed the people not to go out with swords and shields, but to sing, “Give thanks to the LORD for His steadfast love endures forever!” The king’s offering of thanksgiving preceded God’s gift of victory.
The third is Paul’s ongoing attitude of thanksgiving. It was not a singular event that caused him to be thankful to God, but it was a way of life. He wrote, “I thank God always for you,” and about giving thanks “in word or deed,” and he insisted that Christians “give thanks in all circumstances.” In Paul, we see a man who, at all times, chose to have a consistent, thankful disposition.
The fourth example is Daniel. Like Paul, Daniel had an attitude of thankfulness, but in him we see thanking God as a pattern of life. His habit of praying at designated times was so well known that even his enemies tried to use it against him. They plotted to destroy Daniel, yet his first response was to go straight back to it! He thanked God in prayer.
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. (Dan. 6:10)
The fifth one is in the grumbling prophet, Jonah. He was reluctant to obey the Lord, but he teaches us an important lesson about thankfulness in the worst of circumstances. Sometimes you don’t like what you see when you observe your situation, but Jonah was grateful to find himself inside a great fish. He prayed, “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jon. 2:9)
The final example is Moses and Miriam, who expressed their gratitude in song. After they were brought safely through the Red Sea and out of the clutches of a murderous army, they could not contain their thankfulness. Each of them sang and led others in songs that detailed how God had shown them favor. While in chains in prison at midnight, Paul and Silas did the same thing. They were “praying and singing hymns to God.”
What glorious personifications of thankfulness to give your attention to! Will you retain those examples? Will you reproduce them? Is there anyone in this world who has a greater motivation to do that than those whom God has saved?
Commit yourself to responding quickly with thankfulness, to preemptively thanking the Lord, to creating an attitude of thankfulness, establishing a pattern of thankfulness, to being thankful in the wildest and worst of situations and expressing your thankfulness in song.
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the LORD, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. (Ps. 100)