Gratitude

Psalm 30:12 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

¹²      that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

When I was a kid, the last thing my mother would say before I left to attend a birthday party, stayed over at a friend’s, or if I had received a gift was “Don’t forget to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’”  I needed to show appreciation, gratitude to those favoring me with something special.

Gratitude is expressed all over the Bible.  In the New Testament the word translated as gratitude is eucharistia from which we get our English word Eucharist and means praise, thanksgiving, and gratitude.  Communion, the Eucharist, is a remembrance of the sacrifice Christ made for us and to remind us to be grateful for that sacrifice.

Author and radio talk show host, Dennis Prager, has rightly said “All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.”

Much of the unhappiness we see in our country today is caused by a lack of gratitude.  We’re not thankful for what we have.  We think it’s the norm to have two cars, a house, TV, electricity, running water, work.  We should be thankful for all of this.  Who should we thank?  Ah!  There’s the rub.  If we have no God, we have No One to thank for all that we have.  So, gratitude goes unexpressed.  We then start to believe we are responsible for what we have.

But, can we actually think deep down that we deserve any of what we have.  People in third world countries love their families no less.  They often work harder than we do, yet they don’t have the things we do.  Why not?  They’re often more deserving.  On top of that, very often, they are happier than we are.  So, if their happiness doesn’t come from things, things must not bring happiness.

God tells us to be thankful for what He has supplied for us.  That thankfulness, that gratitude, is what makes people happy.

God expects us to act the same way my mother expected me to act, to be grateful.  We’re His children.  Before I knew Him, I used to ask myself “Who does God think He is that we should praise Him for eternity?”  It seemed like a pretty boring eternity to stand before God and thank Him until the end of time.  I feel differently now.

You’ve probably seen in some past blog posts that I’ve been tracking down God’s actions in my life, how I came to meet my wife, how I came to know Him, why we moved to Arizona, and so forth.  The more I track down His actions, the more grateful I am to Him for what He’s done.  I recommend this as a good exercise for us all.

I think an appreciative  heart should be the natural state of Christians.  We should be grateful for all God has done for us.  Our Christian walk along with the joy it brings is enough to be eternally thankful for, but on top of that, we have eternal life with Him.

Why is this important?

As Christians, especially American Christians, we become too involved in the things we have or want more than the in Giver of all things.  Paul and Mary give us good examples of how we should act in times of trial.

2 Timothy 4:18  ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 1:46-49f  ⁴⁶ And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

⁴⁷         and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

⁴⁸     for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

⁴⁹     for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

These people don’t seem unhappy at all.  Their joy is in the Lord, and one source of that joy is in the gratitude and thanks they show to the Giver of all good things.  So, if life isn’t treating you fairly, if you can’t seem to pay the bills, or you’re just down in the dumps, remember some of the very last words Paul penned were praises in the certainty he was about to be executed.  Mary, and unmarried pregnant young woman subject to scorn, praised God joyfully.  Want a day filled with joy?  Start praising God and thanking Him for all He has done and promises to do.  Things will start looking up.