thanking & thinking

In Germanic languages, such as German, English and Dutch, the words ‘thanking’ and ‘thinking’ differ in only one letter. Both words are also traceable to the same root. Also, when considered from the Biblical perspective, it is easy to establish a connection between the two concepts. In Romans 1:21 Paul writes:

… because, knowing God, not as God do they glorify or thank Him, but vain were they made in their reasonings (>thinking) and darkened is their unintelligent heart.

In the preceding verses of this chapter, the apostle argued that although God cannot be observed (and therefore also cannot be the subject of scientific research), He, nevertheless, reveals Himself in His creation. Creation presupposes a Creator. This is “understood with the mind” and the Bible calls this “the beginning of knowledge” (Prov.1:7) or “of wisdom” (Prov.9:10). “To glorify God as God” means to acknowledge that “out of Him, through Him and to Him are all things”  (Rom.11:36). Nothing is outside of His determination and everything serves His purpose! ‘God’ is not merely a casual concept about whom it is interesting to theorize. Fact is that without God, everything is meaningless and hopeless. This is why Paul writes that wherever people do not glorify God as GOD or thank Him, all their reasonings are doomed to come to nothing. Since the starting-point is flawed, all conclusions, in advance, are in vain. It typifies the thinking of the present eon in which God, as GOD, is not acknowledged. Mankind, in general, does not know from where it came and neither, therefore, where it is going. As blind people, they are groping in the dark for meaning. Do we formulate the above statement of Paul, in a positive manner, then we see that wherever God is glorified as GOD and is  given thanks, reasonings become effective. And light dawns in the understanding heart. This recognition provides a prospect in all circumstances and causes one to be radiantly happy. In general, the importance of positive thinking is recognized. Everyone knows how important it is to have confidence in a good outcome. But without a keen awareness of “God as GOD”, positive thinking has no basis. Only those who thank “God as GOD” have reason to always think positively. For even the negative things (difficulty, suffering, illness, misfortune, exploitation, death, injustice, etc.) “work together for good.” “To glorify and thank God as GOD” changes our perception. Because the minuses that they see, are for us pluses that are not yet completed. What a reason to thank God always and to do ones thinking from out of that reality!

Delen: