Gratefulness

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In his book, Jumping Hurdles, Hitting Glitches, Overcoming Setbacks, Steve Brown writes: “The most unhappy person in the world is not someone who didn’t get what he or she wanted.  The most unhappy person is the one who got what he or she wanted and then found out that it wasn’t as wonderful as expected…The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you’ve got.  Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have.  Then we wake up, our life is over and we missed it.”

Soon we will celebrate our national holiday called Thanksgiving.  On that day, we are reminded of our need to be thankful.  Francis Schaffer, in his book True Spirituality said: “The beginning of man’s rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.”  The fact is that the root of an ungrateful heart is the feeling of entitlement.  We think we know what we need; therefore God (or the government) should supply us with it.  After all, God owes us. Those who are unthankful are never happy and they are usually angry.  For some of us, that means that we have to take less time to listen to the news and politics, and more time to read the Word of God.  The root of a grateful heart is an attitude of humility that acknowledges God’s grace. Thankful people are not rebellious; they do not look at themselves as “victims;” they are not envious, resentful, bitter, or angry.  They face every day of life in the joy of what God has given them.  The greatest thing in life is to give thanks, to express appreciation to others, to share these joys and bring happiness to other people.  Thankful people are fun to be with because they are happy people and their attitude is contagious.  Gratefulness is never self-centered.   It comes when we structure our thinking – our lives—our minds and our words so as to be aware of all that we have been given by the Lord.  And we, as Americans, need to take time this year to thank God that we live in the greatest country in the world. Oh, yes, because of human sin, our country has flaws, but thankful people know that God has truly blessed us as Americans.

Finally, the church is where people learn to be grateful every week when we are reminded of what God has done for us in Jesus.  The pulpit is the platform from where we hear about the goodness of God’s grace in light of human failure. Pastor Timothy Keller is fond of saying that we are “more troubled than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope.”  Remember this—our salvation did not come to us because of something we did.  It was God who acted in Jesus.  What we do follows what He did for us.   The message of the cross is the wonderful story of a loving God who cares about you and me.  If that message doesn’t warm your heart, nothing will.