Magnify Him with Thanksgiving

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” - Psalm 69:30

These words resonate in my heart when it comes to the theme of thanksgiving. Magnifying God and being thankful for all of his marvelous blessings go hand in hand. For Hannah and I, our stories can be really be summed up by this Psalm. Quite simply, God has saved us, called us, and has launched us into the ministry. For these things, we should be eternally thankful. I grew up in a Christian home, a gospel-believing church, and a Christian worldview-teaching school. As I was growing up it became very easy for me to equate all of these circumstances with being a Christian. I was a good kid who obeyed his parents, went to and actively participated in church, and made good grades. Meanwhile, internally I did not have a relationship with Jesus and did not believe in a gospel that I had heard hundreds if not thousands of times. In fact, one of the ways I would characterize my heart at the time was “unthankful”. That changed when I truly heard and embraced the gospel for the very first time in 7th grade. Trust me, I recognize the irony of how God saved me in middle school and is now calling me to minister to middle school students, but I digress. When God saved me, everything changed. I was born again. I was made anew. All of my desires and actions changed as a result. I no longer wanted to have an ungrateful and arrogant heart. But I desired to have a tight knit relationship with God, a relationship marked by thanksgiving and pure joy.

In the 5-6 years following high school, God has equipped me for the calling he has so evidently placed in my life. He has been so good and faithful to confirm and strengthen this calling. In 2018, I graduated from Southern Seminary. In 2019, I got married to someone I’m most thankful for, Hannah. She is my helper and my best friend. She brings me such joy and thanksgiving. Now, in 2020, the year of the pandemic, God has mobilized us here from Louisville, KY to Boerne, TX. This is my story. This is my song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving because of it.   

Cole Perkins | Associate Student Pastor

Cole Perkins
“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” - Psalm 69:30

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“True gratitude is not sporadic. It cannot be spent or exhausted. It is the transformation of a mind that is more grateful for the giver than for the gift, for the purpose than for the present, for life itself rather than for abundance.” Ravi Zacharias wrote those words in his book, Recapture the Wonder. As is often the case, Ravi’s words make me think. His words often convict as well.

I find that my gratitude is often sporadic, but why? Perhaps it is because I do not think long enough or deep enough about the implications of the incarnation. Maybe I do not think about all the people the Lord has put in my life who enrich me. If these are too profound, maybe we need to focus on being thankful for daily bread, for shoes, for breath. My point being there is always something to be grateful for. When we remember what the Lord has done for us, our affections are stirred. When our affections are stirred, a life lived out in worship of Christ follows.

If true gratitude cannot be exhausted, why are we so stingy with it? Have we come to treat it as a commodity that must be budgeted or worse yet, seek to compound? Why would I not be generous, even lavish with my gratitude if it cannot be depleted? I remember a story in the Bible of lavish gratitude, a gratitude so deep that the aroma filled the room and the only remnant was alabaster shards. Indeed, it was the gratitude of a mind transformed so that gratitude for Jesus was greater than the gift of forgiveness he offered. May each of us express our gratitude to Christ in a similar way.

I am grateful for Cole and Hannah this Thanksgiving season. God has blessed our church with this young couple, and we look forward to doing ministry together in the years to come. Please take the time to read their story. I am grateful for each of you!