My topic for today can
be expressed in one word - “gratitude.”
Interestingly, the word “gratitude”
isn’t found in the English translations of the Bible (at least in all the ones
I checked) and yet the character of a Christian speaks directly to our being “grateful” for what we’ve
been blessed with. The word “thankful”
is used and carries the same meaning as “gratefulness.”
I guess that one of the
things about some people that really sets me off, that’s like fingernails on a
blackboard to me, is the lack of appreciation or “gratitude” shown for something done for
them. It just seems to me that more and more people are not “grateful” towards others
for deeds done or services rendered to their behalf. Perhaps a lot of our
society has developed a sense of entitlement and figures that everything is
owed to them.
I see this attitude
cropping up quite often lately, what with people running for political office
and basically promising everybody everything for free. I truly believe
that this attitude, this way of thinking, goes along way towards the
destruction of a nation. I further believe that society is far better off
when it possesses a nature of thankfulness for its blessings.
Just below the greatest
blessing of all, the sacrifice of His life on the cross by our Savior Jesus
Christ, at least in my estimation, is the lives and health of our armed forces
sacrificed for our nation’s freedom and well-being. How do we repay the
love shone for our country by their sacrifices? (John 15:13)
In thinking about that question I’m reminded of something Benjamin Franklin
once said that is so appropriate to the answer of it. He wrote: “The heaviest debt is that of gratitude,
when it is not in our power to repay it.”
Oh, we try to recompense
them in several ways but none of them are adequate to my way of thinking.
With the same line of thinking, how do we repay God for all that He has blessed
us with, up to and including the life of His Son? What could we possibly
give Him that would be a worthy recompense? The only answer that I can
come up with is this: to possess a grateful heart, obey His word and the “giving thanks always for all things
unto God....” (Eph. 5:20)
I’m reminded of a couple
of hymns we sometimes sing in worship that has lyrics befitting our thoughts
today. One of them is entitled “More
Holiness Give Me” and we note is that the 2nd stanza begins with
the request “More gratitude
give me.” I believe that all of us can pray for that because
I also believe that we all fall short in the area of being grateful, being “thankful” sometimes.
The other hymn that
reminds me of how we are sometimes lacking in showing our appreciation to God
is the old familiar “Count
Your Blessings.” I’ll bet that if we really did “count them one by one” we’d
be most surprised “at what the
Lord has done.”
In prior lessons I’ve
mentioned that many times we can learn a positive lesson by looking at the
situation in reverse. In a negative sense, so to speak. A good
example of this is the account in Luke 17 of Jesus healing 10 lepers.
Read verses 12-19 and tell me how many of them thanked Him for being healed of
the most dreadful disease of that day and age. If you answered “one”
you’d be correct. Now, notice what Jesus said about this in verse 17 “Were there not ten cleansed? But
where are the nine?”
Plus, there’s another
interesting aspect to that story that perhaps you might not have picked up
on. Did you notice that the only leper to return and thank Jesus for
healing him “was a Samaritan?”
Not only wasn’t a Jew, one of Jesus’ own people, was from a group of people
vehemently despised by the Jews. However, to cap this paragraph’s thought
off, do you think the Jews were “thankful,”
were “appreciative”
of Jesus coming as their long-awaited Messiah? Obviously not! I’d
hate to think that the percentage of “grateful”
people today still holds true from Christ’s day - ten percent.
Before I leave the
healing of the 10 lepers, I have one more thought to pass on. The famous
and ancient author, Aesop, once wrote “Gratitude
is the sign of noble souls.” Don’t you picture the one “soul” who “thanked” Him was more “noble” than the
others? I do.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day
and with God’s blessing I’ll be in our Nation’s capitol celebrating it as I
have been for the past 9 years. I just wish that I could take all of you
with me so you could see the ceremonies and the monuments honoring all those
who gave so much for our freedom. That I could take you through Arlington
National Cemetery and let you see the rows and rows of grave markers where our
heroes lie in their earthly final resting place. To say it’s humbling is
a vast understatement.
Wherever you find
yourself Monday, May 30th, please take some time to be “thankful” for their
sacrifice. And, on Sunday, May 29th, let’s remember the sacrifice of
God’s Son, Jesus Christ, on Calvary’s cross. If our military’s sacrifice
allows us to live free here on earth, how much more should we be “grateful” for the sacrifice
that allows us to live eternally in heaven?
In closing our thoughts
today on the subject of “gratitude,”
of being “thankful”
and “appreciative”
of all that God has blessed us with, and our military heroes are one of those
blessings, let me offer just a few more words.
How do we develop and
maintain a heart of “gratitude?”
How do we make sure that we are always in the ten percent that are “thankful?” I believe
that the first step is to always remember from where all of our blessings
flow. The second step is to “thank”
God for all that He has done in our behalf. From the very air that we
breathe through sending man a Savior.
“Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who
heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you
with steadfast love and mercy.” (Psalm 103:1-4)
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
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