“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17)

With Thanksgiving only a few days away, there are always plenty of things to do. But not everything will be enjoyable. Sometimes, even for those who like to cook a big meal, there will still be laborious tasks that no one wants to do. And with that notion we have the crutch of the problem as it relates to today’s scripture. “And whatever you do…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” It is my belief that the Apostle Paul chose his words quite carefully such that there was no question or exemptions possible on this command. We are to use our words and our actions as a form of “thanksgiving to God.” And while we all will naturally agree to this command, the struggle comes in when we try to negotiate away the phrases “whatever you do” and “do it all.” These phrases convey the literal sense of all inclusive. All our actions and every word should point to God, showing our praise and thankfulness for all God has done (and will do in the future). So this is a hard truth. Whatever we do, leaves no room for rationalization or caveats. We are to simply include all things that we say and do into our ongoing worship of God. All those tasks assigned to us that we don’t want to do, well they still fall into the category of “everything” and should still be done “in the name of the Lord” in praise of Him. (Those in our Sunday school are probably chuckling at this nugget, b/c this past week I was admitting how bad I am at not doing the things I don’t want to do.) So, in the end, today’s verse is clear. Try to find God in all that we do and praise Him while doing it.