Character Qualities of a Christian- Thankfulness

What are you thankful for? I’m sure that with thanksgiving this past week, this question has been asked thousands of times. Perhaps it was asked at your table and you answered a generic question such as “my house, my family, my stuff*”, and these are all valid, so don’t get all discouraged, but I’m going to head down a slightly different track. Side note: I saw a picture that said “Only in America do we celebrate thankfulness and then the next day go fight people to get things we don’t have.” This is funny, but also sadly true. I’m also not here to criticize Black Friday, because I enjoy it as well, but we seriously need to take a good look at our thankfulness life. Now, the start to this article is a bit strange, but bear with me, and hopefully you’ll see what I’m getting at.

           

            When are we most thankful? Well, thanksgiving aside, we are generally thankful when someone does something for us. Maybe your parents take you to Disney World, or maybe your little sister does your chores for you when you’re sick, or someone takes you out for pizza randomly, etc. When are we least thankful? Normally when things are going wrong, or when someone messes up a project that you’ve spent seven hours working on, or when you’re two pages from finishing that novel you’ve been reading for two months, and your mom calls you to come and finish a chore. Figure out what is wrong with this scenario: You raked all of the leaves on your ¾ acre yard and are finally sitting down to watch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and you have just enough time to finish it before you have to go to bed. Then, your mom asks you to help your dad take all of the leaves to the dump before dark. This will take one more grueling hour of work. Is your first response to say, “Thank you so much for having me work for another hour, and allowing me to rake our yard*”?

           

            When is the most important time to be thankful? That’s easy, always! 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 is entitled (at least in my Bible) “various exhortations” and it is one of my favorite passages (but maybe I’m just weird). If you want a cut-and-dried set of commands, look here!   1 Thessalonians 5:18 is actually one of the longer commands, which says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In EVERYTHING, give thanks. That basically means that it doesn’t matter what your day is like, it doesn’t matter how sick you are, it doesn’t matter how poor you are; what matters is that you give thanks. We all have something. Some days it may feel like we don’t have much or don’t have anything, but you always have something to be thankful for.

           

            Thankfulness may seem like a self-focus, but it is actually an outward focus. Thankfulness is not (or shouldn’t be) “look at what I have” but instead, “look at what God has given me, through other people.” When we think we have nothing to be thankful for, that is a lie, and it is a self-focused mentality. I often think of a song entitled “Count Your Blessings” when I think of thankfulness, and that really captures the essence of what thankfulness is. Or in the Doxology when we sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” A lot of times throughout scripture, we see people “giving thanks” and you probably already know that another term for this is “praying”.

           

            Now, this article really boils down into one sentence: thankfulness is an outward-focused expression of gratitude for the blessings provided by God. I’m going to get as practical as possible here, and tell you one thing that you can always be thankful for: Jesus Christ paying the price for our sins by a brutal death on the cross. That, and that alone, is better than the best day a person can have. Thankfulness is defined as “full of thanks or gratitude” and that’s what we, as Christians should be; full of gratitude.

* My guess is that somewhere near 80% of the people who were asked this question answered one of these three answers

* Unless it’s said sarcastically (which I may have done before)

Character Qualities of a Christian- Joy

           I saw a three-pack of stockings, each with a different letter on them, spelling J-O-Y. With the Christmas season coming up, you are about to hear the word “joy” a lot. So what is joy? Is it the largest box under the Christmas tree with your name on it? Is it spending Christmas with your family that you rarely see? Or could joy possibly be something that we get as a result of our relationship with God? Perhaps you have never experienced joy, and this is all Spanish to you, but bear with me here. Or maybe you think you’ve found joy, but in actuality, you have never actually had joy. Joy is defined as great happiness or something that brings happiness.

            

           Before plunging into a quick overview of joy, I just wanted to put this quote in that really sums up this entire article, “The Holy Spirit stirs in us a joy and peace when we are fixated on Jesus, living by faith, and focused on the life to come.”¹ I stumbled upon this phrase in Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love, and thought it fit very well with the theme of this article. As I considered how to write this article, I contemplated breaking down this statement, but then again, as great as Chan is, he’s not God. So then that led me to ask what Jesus said about joy. I just want to look at what Jesus directly said about joy. Turn to John 16:20, and read it. Jesus says that joy will come in heaven, so does that mean that we cannot have joy on earth? Keep reading in verse 24. This is a popular verse in the Bible, but only the “Ask and you shall receive” part is, and not the part that says “So that your joy may be full”. So start a mental list of how and when we shall receive joy. 1. Asking God for things and receiving them brings us joy.

            

           Moving on (I’m not doing this in chronological order, fyi), or moving back, to John 15:1-11. You probably already know this passage in the Bible, but read it anyway. At the end of all of this, Jesus adds, “Oh yeah, I told you this so that you may have joy” (Author’s paraphrase). I’ve found that sometimes you have to read the Bible backwards as well as frontwards. Look back at what He said should make us joyful. 2. The fact that we are connected to the body of believers that are rooted in Christ should fill us with joy. This is the second point of this article, and it is also the main point of the article. Without being in a local church and growing spiritually, there is NO JOY!

            

           I just want to add one more statement to this, so as to make this list easy to remember, and this one is a little bit different from the others. Look at Luke 15:7-10. Find the word joy in this passage and then try to figure out what we can glean from it. The answer is not exactly clear, but it can be found by looking at Romans 12:15, which says to, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” If you still have no idea how these verses fit together or even how they coincide with joy, let’s break it down a bit. Jesus says that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. Well, we’re not in heaven are we? So how does this relate to the topic even slightly? We need to be like the angels; finding joy in the joy of others. A man came home one night to find a new car and a letter informing him of a large raise that he’d been given. In his excitement, he called up his two best friends. The first friend was overjoyed, because he knew that this man had fallen on some hard times financially, and this would be a great help. The man’s other friend bitterly congratulated the man and then hung up. His jealousy won over any feelings of happiness for his friend. 3. We find joy by rejoicing with those who are rejoicing.

            

           That story was fictional, but it showed the two different ways to react to something like that. I think everyone knows what the correct response is, but jealousy often overtakes us. I’ve found it incredibly hard to destroy whatever jealousy creeps into my heart in times where others are rejoicing, but with God’s help, it can be accomplished. So maybe this article could be called “Redefining Joy” because in essence, that’s what I wanted to accomplish, because as Christmas approaches, we receive false images of what joy is. Things on earth are often pleasurable, but nothing, save Jesus Christ, can bring you complete joy. One final thing before I end this article, if you have been searching for true joy, maybe just jot down these four things:

1. Asking God for things and then receiving them brings us joy

2. The fact that we are connected to a body of believers that are rooted in Christ should fill us with joy

3. We find joy by rejoicing with those who are rejoicing

4. Complete and perfect joy comes in heaven

¹ Francis Chan, Crazy Love (2008), pg. 109

Character Qualities of a Christian- Self-Control

          Interestingly enough, the word “self-control” was not used in the Bible until the New Testament. It is used only nine times throughout the Bible, and it simply means the ability to control your own behavior. I’m going to write this article a bit different than I do with most of mine, and I’m going to base it off of three separate statements. But before I do that though, I want to quickly define what self-control is. In its most basic form, self-control is the ability to set limitations on your life and do things in moderation; that’s where we get the term “self” combined with “control”*.

            

           Self-control is an essential component in the healthy walk of a Christian. I know that if I read something like this, I would be tempted to just say, “Yep, it is,” and leave it at that, but as Christians, we are called to a greater response. If you were raised in church, you probably learned the fruit of the spirit at a young age, maybe you even know it in song version*, but not all of us take that list seriously. I very strongly believe that it is one of the most important list of character qualities in the Bible. Self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit, and is mentioned in Galatians 5:23. If this character quality made the top nine, I think that we can assume that it is very essential component to a healthy walk. Boundaries and moderation are very important in life, but once we get our own house (and even before that), we are the ones setting our boundaries.

            

           Self-control can be achieved by all Christians. God generally sets realistic goals. Just turn real quick (this is still sort of on-topic) to Luke 18:27 where Jesus says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” I’m definitely not saying that we can achieve self-control in our own strength. A popular phrase is “God will never give you more than you can handle” but that should be, “God will never give you more than He can handle”. Self-control can only be achieved through the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians can only have the ability of self-control when they surrender everything to God and let Him work in their lives.  

            

           Self-control has been commanded by God. A Sunday school teacher that I had several years ago would say something but follow it up with the statement, “But don’t take my word for it; open your Bibles...” So, open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 9:25. This verse seems a bit confusing at first, so I just want to break it down into two sections. The race that we are running in is our life. Run so that we may obtain the prize, which means to give God all that we’ve got. Exercising self-control is key to running the race. 

           

           Picture this: four runners are getting ready to run a race. The guy in charge* gives no rules and no boundaries, not even a track, but he does give a goal and no instruction on how to get there. I’m guessing that not many of them would actually make it to the end, because there were no boundaries. This is what I believe Paul is saying: Self-control is essential to our “race” because it gives us a direction or purpose in life and boundaries that keep us going in the right direction.

* In case you didn’t catch that, it’s control over one’s self…

* AKA, fruit of the spirit 2.0

* Yeah, that shows how much I watch racing… Referee? Umpire? Coach? Bat boy? Guy with the starting gun?

Character Qualities of a Christian- Humility

          I have had an unordinary amount of free time recently, and so I have mainly used that time to blog. When I got to this quality, though, I figured that I would be able to write an article on humility. Then, as I started writing it, I realized that I didn’t even have a rudimentary understanding of humility. This article is my discoveries about humility that I pray are helpful to whoever may read this. I have come to realize that humility is something that is sorely lacking in the world today, but some of the world’s greatest people were humble. I would like to learn from people that have a reputation for humility, and what humility is, and also the dangers of pride.

            

           I want to take a quick look at two people in the Bible that were humble, and see what we can learn from them. The first person is Joseph, which I know is a typical person to study, but he was a very humble person, and I believe that something can learned from him. I love watching Joseph’s attitude throughout his life, which tends to remain as a general thankfulness to God. When he had a prestigious position in Potiphar’s house, he thanked God, when he was in jail, he still praised God, and when he became vizier he praised God. Now, I know that, had I been in Joseph’s position, I would’ve been sitting in jail, feeling forgotten by God, but when I became vizier, there would be a tendency in me to pat myself on the back (although physically impossible), telling myself that I had gotten there myself (in spite of my evil brothers). But I think above all, Joseph’s humility shows in Genesis 50:19, where Joseph’s brothers come before him, begging for mercy, and he almost laughs that they thought it necessary to do that. He asks, “Am I in the place of God?” This is translated as, “Yes, it is true that you guys tried to kill me, but instead sold me and faked my death, and I was sent to Egypt where I was falsely accused and thrown into jail, but on second thought, I have done way worse by sinning against my Creator, and why should I be taking the position of judge from God who put me in the political position. God put me here in this position, so why should I, as a lowly servant of God, be judging my brothers who he created and has a plan for, especially after He delivered me from despair and death?” Joseph realized his place and how little he was involved in the process of going from slave to vizier. The first step to humility is realizing the enormous difference between what we have done for God and what God has done for us.

            

           The second person that I want to look at is Jesus. This is one of the most amazing examples of humility. He created this earth, and died for it, yet He comes to earth and washes the feet of dirty, sinful humans. Jesus was well within his rights to come and live like a king, and demand that everyone bow in His presence, but He came and served others. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life [as] a ransom for many.” Jesus is the ultimate model of humility. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to earth, and did the job of lowly servants, suffered for wretched sinners, and eventually died in one of the most treacherous, painful ways to die. He didn’t care about how things should be, or how unfair things were. The second step to humility is to strive to model Jesus’ humility.

            

           Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness¹. C.J. Mahaney, author of Humility: True Greatness, defines “humility” in a cut-and-dried style. This definition is what Joseph lived out in Genesis 50:19, that looking at ourselves in the blinding light of God’s holiness is a genuinely humbling experience. There are two general types of humility: outward humility and inward humility. Outward humility is the phrases such as, “Oh, it was nothing” or “Anyone could have done it”. Attitudes such as these are false humility and they are normally digging for reassurance on how incredible whatever that person did was. Genuine humility is the incredible feeling of being brought to your knees by the overwhelming realization of the difference between your incompetence and God’s omnipotence. 

            

           To finish this article with something practical, I want to give two examples of humility: false and genuine.

Example 1: You make a full court shot while the entire youth group is watching, and afterwards you are congratulated heavily. You cheeks then turn red and you quietly mumble, “Oh, there wasn’t much to it.” The youth leader then remarks how he appreciates your humility.

Example 2: After practicing three months for an offertory, you play it at church, and afterwards an elderly choir member pulls you aside, forcefully telling you that your piece was too loud and energetic. You nod and say that you will work on that (or something of that sort) and then reevaluate whether or not there was any truth to what the choir member said. Your action is then based off that, and your desire to please God.

            This is probably pretty obvious which one is fake and which one is genuine.* Fake humility is really camouflaged pride. To sum this all up in the words of Mahaney, “[T]ransfer all the glory to [God] and experience the promise and the pleasures of humility².

¹ C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 22

² C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 170

* If you’re still stumped one which is which, I’ll give you a cheat: the first is false humility, and the second is genuine humility.