Always Give Thanks

Ephesians 5:18-20 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

These verses are found under a subheading that said, “Walk in Love.” Did you know that the book of Ephesians is a letter from St. Paul about the church? If you read at the beginning of the book of Ephesians, it talks about how the purpose of this letter was to make God’s plan for salvation known throughout the universe. This theology that he is using is anchored in God’s saving love shown in Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for us to be saved. He died for our sins. St. Paul is sending out letters to the various newly formed Christian communities to instruct them in how they should walk in this faith. It was clear that Christ came for both Jews & Gentiles and so St. Paul was instructing the early Christians on how to walk with faith.

I think these are the parts of the bible that many don’t like to read. We want to follow in Jesus’s footsteps, we want to go to heaven, and yet sometimes we don’t want to be told what we can and can’t do. The Lord our God loves us and wants to be reunited with all of his children in heaven one day. However, He gives us free will and we need to choose that path. We need to choose to follow in his footsteps here on earth if we want to follow him into the kingdom of heaven.

This passage starts off by saying in Ephesians 1:18, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but we filled with the Spirit.” Some of you may be hearing this and you already don’t like where this is going. This podcast is called Walk Boldly With Jesus and if we are going to do that then we need to look at all the scripture verses, even the ones that we don’t want to hear. I looked up the word debauchery online as I did not know what it meant. This is what I found, excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures. I think what this passage is trying to tell us is that if we get drunk then we are more likely to commit sin. This is something we probably already know, however, I am not sure we all new it was in the bible. I don’t think I knew that.

Now, St. Paul is not saying do not drink wine at all. Wine was a part of life back then just as it is now. Jesus turned water into wine, He would not have done this if he felt wine was evil. What I believe he is saying is don’t drink so much wine or alcohol that you lose control over your thoughts and actions. If you do not have control over your faculties then you could be led to stray away from your beliefs and do things that you know are sins.

St. Paul doesn’t just say, don’t get drunk, he also adds but be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then He can help you make the right decisions. Whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit, or you are filled with alcohol, you have something influencing your decisions. Which would you rather have, a good influence or a bad influence. Life is hard enough and the devil is always trying to exploit any situation and convince us to do things that go against what we believe or what God wants for us. Do we really want to give him the opportunity to take advantage of us in a weakened state?

I am not sure if you have even been filled with he Holy Spirit before, but let me tell you, it is an amazing feeling. It is similar to a drunk feeling. Your body is warm, you are filled with so much joy that you are in an excellent mood. You have this sense of calm, a sense of peace that everything will be ok. A lot of people say they drink in social situations because they loose their inhibition and they stop caring what people think of them. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can also loose your inhibition and stop caring what people think. If you get the chance to read this whole chapter, I highly recommend it. In chapter 2 of Acts it talks about what the apostles were like after they were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:13 it says, “Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Then Peter stands up and says in Acts 2:15-18 “ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 1 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

The apostles had been locked in an upper room. They were afraid to go out and talk about Jesus as the Jews had put Him to death by crucification not that long ago. And yet once they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were filled with a Holy boldness. You too can be filled with a holy boldness. All you have to do is ask God. Have you ever prayed that before? Did you know that was such a thing? I remember when I first heard the term I loved it. I started to pray for it often. I am not sure I would be doing this podcast today if I hadn’t started praying for that. I knew that I wanted to share God’s love with the whole world. I knew I wanted to feel free to talk about my faith and my religion. I also knew that I was a people pleaser and that I don’t like confrontation. I knew that talking about my faith would open me up to criticism and I knew it would make me vulnerable.

I grew up in a large family and yet I still felt uncomfortable in large crowds. Especially if I didn’t know anyone. However, since praying for this holy boldness I am a lot less nervous in large crowds. I have joined a Toastmasters club where I give speeches in front of all of the members and I am not really that nervous. I think I have a healthy level nervousness. If you are nervous or anxious about anything, take it the Lord. He will help you. If you are one that likes to drink so that you will feel more comfortable in certain situations I would ask you to give prayer a try. Before heading out to do whatever you feel uncomfortable doing, try praying to God and asking Him for the courage to do the thing and then thank Him in advance for showing up. I think you will be surprised with your level of confidence.

I have spent most of this episode talking about the first part of these verses. However, I don’t want to end without touching on the last part as well. The last verse says, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is something that I am not sure we always remember to do. I think we are usually pretty good about asking God for things, especially when we really need something. However, I am not sure we always remember to thank Him when He does what we asked Him to do. How about you, are you good at remembering to say Thank you when your prayers are answered? What about when God gives you things you didn’t pray for, do you remember to say thank you? What has God done for you in the last few days that you could thank Him for? Here are a few things that He may have given to you that you didn’t ask for: a new day of life, a green light when you were running late, a nice cup of coffee, sun shine, rain, stars at night, a morning with no traffic…

I am sure if you tried you could think of many things that we could thank God for. The verse says to always give thanks for everything. I was not asking you how you are doing with this so that you would get down on yourself if you weren’t doing it. I was asking because I think it is great to check in with ourselves from time to time and see how we are doing. Especially if we are reminded about something like this with a scripture verse. I was listening to the Big Life Devotional podcast by Pamela Crim the other day and she mentioned that she felt like her relationship with Jesus got a whole lot closer and more intimate when she developed a daily gratitude practice.

If you are feeling like you wish you had a closer relationship with Jesus I recommend you take a notebook and start writing down 5 things every day that you could be thankful for. God gives us everything that we have. It is nice when we can be grateful for all that we have, even if we don’t feel like we have a lot. No matter your circumstances, there is something to be grateful for. Even if you can just find one thing and even if that one thing is that you got out of bed, or maybe you didn’t get out of bed, but you did wake up, that is something. Being grateful, especially in the hard times, is an especially powerful tool to strengthen your faith and your relationship with your creator. If you do not currently have a daily practice of gratitude I challenge you to start one and see how much better your days are. It does not have to be complicated. It could be as simple as before you get out of bed in the morning you spend 1 minute thanking God for waking up that morning. Thanking God can take less than a minute and yet can be life changing. Will you give it a try?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. We thank you for being with us today and every day. Lord I ask that you bless each one of us with a holy boldness. We ask that you replace our nervousness or anxiety with a boldness to go out and do the things were afraid to do. Lord we ask for you to help us to not get drunk on wine or alcohol but to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Lord I ask that you rain down the Holy Spirit on all of us listening today. Lord we thank you for all that you've given to us. Lord you're so generous and so happily rain down blessings on us and we're so very grateful. Lord God we know sometimes we forget to thank you and we're sorry for that. We are thanking you now Lord because we are so truly grateful. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus is holy name, amen!