It’s not about your feelings.
A call to worship.
Themes
Thanksgiving • Worship • Intercession • Mediation • Participation • High Priest • Feelings vs. Reality • Representation • Prayer • Ontological Union • Communion • Ascension • Divine Attention • Christ’s Sufficiency
God didn’t send us techniques for a more thankful life. Instead, He gave us Jesus.
Scripture reading
Hebrews 7:25 Hebrews 8:1-2 Hebrews 9:24 Hebrews 13:15 1 Peter 2:5 Colossians 3:17 Ephesians 5:20
This call to worship1 helps you breathe again. It reminds you that even when your heart is dull or your words are broken, Jesus is worshiping for you—and you are invited to join in. It’s not about conjuring emotion. It’s about participating in the Son’s unending thanksgiving to the Father.
Paul wrote these words: Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote: Christ entered into heaven itself. Why? To appear now before God on our behalf. We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. And there He ministers in the true place of worship. Jesus lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God. And Peter wrote: Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
Prayer
Father in heaven, we confess that we mostly think of thankfulness as a feeling. We feel it, or we don’t, and so we’re thankful mostly when we feel thankful. We muster our feelings of thankfulness when we think we should have them. And we love it when the feeling of thankfulness is just there for us, and we don’t have to muster it. We confess, then, that we’ve shrunk thankfulness down to a mood, a vibe, a sentiment, a feeling that comes and goes. But right now, as we sit here, the ascended Jesus, our great High Priest— He is interceding for us right now. He is praising You, Father, for us. He is giving thanks— He is thankful, He is offering our thanksgiving— right now. For us. And what He is expressing to You, on our behalf, has nothing at all to do with our feelings or our ability to muster the right feeling. Father, You are hearing from us right now, through Jesus Christ. And You are not hearing our broken, shallow, frail, half-mustered somethings. No. What You are hearing is truly ours in Christ, perfected and made beautiful and sweet. Thank You for not sending us techniques for a more thankful life. Instead, thank You for giving us Jesus. Who gave Himself— the incarnate Son. Who took up our humanity into Himself, and from it renders back to You all our lifelong perfect thankfulness and our perfect gratitude, and is doing so, right now, as we sit here, regardless of our feelings. You did all of this. You are doing all of this. Every bit of our salvation —even the thankfulness part that should come from us— is all accomplished. In Christ, yes, You have given to us Your revelation, Your reconciliation, Your adoption of us. But there’s more! Christ is giving to You, from us, on our behalf, His faith, His obedience, His thanksgiving. He has made all of that, all that is His, He has made it ours. And it’s always perfect. And it’s always sweet. And it’s always beautiful. He did not open the door, and then step aside and wish us the best. No. He stands with us and for us, and we are in Him, and so all of who we are to You, Father, is through Him. Our prayers are through Him— You hear the perfect prayer of our heart, no matter how bad we pray. Our requests are through Him— You hear all the right requests even when we make all the wrong ones. Our praise is through Him— You hear only our perfect praise, no matter how out of tune we sing, or how theologically soft the lyrics are, or how bad our sound system is. Our thanksgiving is through him— You, Father, hear only, ever, our sweet thankfulness and gratitude. We never need to get Your attention. We never need to conjure the right feeling. We never need to express the right sentiment. We never need to make the right requests, or say the right words. Instead, we are always sharing in Your Son’s existing and perfect attention with You who perfectly expresses us in and through Himself. So this morning, Father, enable us to participate in all that sweet thanksgiving that is being expressed in Christ. Enable us to participate in the Son’s worship. Help us to practice it together now. Help us to become a people of “thank You” and a people of “here I am,” a community whose reflex is to join His praise, a community whose posture is availability— availability to participate in what He is already doing. Enable gratitude to become our common tongue. In the name of Jesus, who stands with us and for us, through whom we pray, through whom we offer our thanksgiving, Amen.
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians who gathered at Pathway Church in Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, November 23, 2025.