“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

This one is hard!! But 38 years into my walk with Jesus, I think I’m starting to get it. I think. Take a look at these two fabulous passages:

• Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares the way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.” Psalms 50:23
• “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension [lofty opinion] that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Thankfulness can be understood through the analogy of a powerful military tank that equips believers for the battles of faith. Tanks are designed for both protection and assault. Just like a tank, based on the passages above thankfulness operates as both a defensive bulwark against spiritual attacks and an offensive weapon to advance God’s kingdom. Thankfulness is a crucial component of our spiritual armor, akin to the thick, tactically designed, impenetrable plating of a tank.

In an assault, “the flesh” responds with fear, anxiety, comparing and flexing military might, and even despair, overwhelm, and discouragement, among other emotions and actions. In warfare, you can defensively erect thankfulness as a spiritual shield. Thankfulness guns down negative thoughts, emotions, words, and actions trying to penetrate your inner being. This is not merely passive, try it and you’ll see that it is a very hard thing to do! Thankfulness is an active choice and a powerful defensive maneuver to focus on God’s goodness, thereby denying the enemy a foothold. Thankfulness is like the Reaper in the US Marine Corps Crucible. (https://www.tecom.marines.mil/…/Article/528238/the-reaper/) As a tank’s armor deflects enemy fire, your thankfulness deflects the enemy’s attempts to sow seeds of doubt, fear, anxiety, and the other traits I listed above.

By being thankful offensively, you actively engage in the destruction of arguments and every pretension or lofty opinion that raises itself against the knowledge of God.  These arguments can manifest as negative self-talk, anxieties about the future, or doubts about God’s love and provision. By expressing gratitude, you defy and challenging these lies. You replace them with the truth of God’s goodness.  You effectively take every thought captive to obey Christ. You wrestle the enemy’s strategies to the ground and reclaim your mental and emotional territory. You are pretty much screaming, “Hell, no!” in the spirit.

As you face a personal attack such as a verbal barrage from someone, or a horrible diagnosis, or negative news about your child; as you face a collective attack such as the world is undergoing currently, you can rise defiantly in thankfulness. You don’t need to say thank you “for” the situation, but you say thank you “in” it. You thank God that He will use the situation to blast the enemy to smithereens and to show Himself strong. You don’t buckle under the news or the assault. You don’t freak out like a weaponless soldier. No, you are highly trained. You are lethally equipped. If you don’t know what to do in your situation, I’ve handed you a fully outfitted, girded, steeled piece of state-of-the-art apparatus. The fabulous thing is that even a child can use it. In fact, train children in your life to use it.

By consistently offering thanks, you are not denying the reality of your struggles, but rather affirming the greater reality of God’s presence and mind-blowing power. This strategic deployment of gratitude enables you to navigate spiritual battles with resilience and confidence, ultimately leading to your victory which has already been won! Soak in this magnificent passage:

^“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:6-16

Call to Action:

Share what struggle you are facing today and allow me and others to train our tanks towards it in (wait for it…) tankfulness! 🤣