It is a tradition in Christianity to recite a confession of faith. But our greatest confession of faith is our expression of gratitude for all that Christ is in us. We can only be grateful for something we have received. And we have received Christ, in whom we are rooted and grounded and growing up in everything God has for us. What greater reason is there to be overflowing with gratitude?

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Show Notes:

Gratitude is an emotion that is foundational to our walk with God. According to Colossians, we should be overflowing with gratitude. But do we really understand what gratitude is and why we need it? Gratitude by definition is a feeling you have after you receive something. You are grateful for what you have already received. You are not grateful because you are hoping or believing to receive something. And the reason we are overflowing with gratitude is because we have received Christ and He is in us.

We have received the One in whom the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. We have received the resurrected Christ who, by the removal of the flesh in a circumcision made without hands, has raised us up with Him. We have received Him who is the head over all rule and authority and who has made us complete in Him. Is it any wonder that we would be overflowing with gratitude? Yet in the process of walking with God, we are easily distracted from what a walk with God is all about.

The reason we walk with Him is because He is living in us. As a result, our growth and maturity are about walking with Him into greater and greater manifestations of the fullness of Christ. The very purpose and drive of the Father in reconciling us to Himself through Christ is to dwell in His people. And He is always leading us toward that goal. What gratitude we should live in that God daily is working and growing and dwelling in our hearts! We should be overflowing with gratitude, finding ways to express that every day, because that is what connects us with the power of Christ living in us.

Key Verses:

• Colossians 2:6–12. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him … overflowing with gratitude.”
• John 14:17–23. “My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
• Galatians 2:20. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
• Philippians 2:8–11. “I count all things to be loss … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
• Ephesians 3:14–19. “Know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Quotes:

• “We have received Christ Jesus our Lord into our lives, and we are to walk in Him because He is living in us.”
• “We are overflowing with gratitude because Christ is in us and He is established in us and we are being built up in Him.”
• “I think many times it really escapes us that God is driven to dwell in us. Christ came to reconcile us to the Father, and Christ said that He would dwell in us and that He and the Father would come and take up Their abode with us.”

Takeaways:

1. Christ is in us, and we need to live in gratitude because as we express that gratitude, we confess and believe that we have received all that He is.
2. Living daily in a state of overflowing gratitude connects us with all the power and authority of Christ living in us.
3. We should be overwhelmed by the reality that God is driven to dwell in and among His people, and He is always moving us toward that goal.

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