Gratitude

Living with gratitude has not come easily for me.

I know I should count my blessings, but sometimes it’s just easier to count my miseries. That comes more naturally. And miseries capture my thoughts and interrupt my days more readily than blessings. But counting my miseries seems to shrink my soul, and in the end I am more miserable than when I began.

We are, for the most part, troubled people. We are troubled within, and troubled without. We are troubled in our bodies, and in our families. We are troubled with our relatives. We are troubled with our property disputes. We are troubled when we see our loved ones in pain! We are troubled in our workplaces, and in our churches. We are troubled in our neighborhoods, and across our nation.

We welcome trouble with our sin, but we are plagued by trouble even in our best efforts. Job’s friend, Eliphaz, while not the best counselor, got it right when he said, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward”(Job 5:7). Jesus himself said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).

Therefore, we, for the most part, are burdened people, because troubled hearts carry heavy burdens with them.

And in the midst of all our nearly constant and complex trouble, Jesus says to us, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). And Paul, who knew more constant and complex trouble than most of us will know, says to us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Desire Diminishes Gratitude

 I have often lived my life when my focus  on what I don’t have has blinded me to all that I have received from God. Desire has diminished gratitude. And I know I’m not alone. Many of us live so focused on what we don’t have that we miss the present gifts we could be enjoying. We’re blessed and discontented, with lowered joy and heightened dissatisfaction.

Singles pine for marriage; couples for freedom. The unemployed long for jobs; workers for weekends. Childless couples yearn for a baby; parents for sleep. We want what we don’t have — until we have it. And then we want something more or something else. 

Enjoying Gifts, Not the Giver

Of course, we’re not always moping for what we don’t have. We’re not afraid to enjoy the good things of this world. Billions of people daily experience trillions of moments of pleasure, joy, and satisfaction. But this creates another massive problem: Most of those moments are enjoyed without any response of thankfulness to God.

Even when we don’t miss the gift, we often miss the Giver. This thanklessness deeply troubled the apostle Paul, who diagnosed it as an act of rebellion against God:

“Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).

Paul connected the sin of thanklessness with idolatry. Instead of thanking God for what he gives, we assign ultimate value to things God made, worshiping and thanking them instead of God. It’s what Israel did at Mount Sinai: claiming the golden calf had brought them out of Egypt, they gave honor and thanks to a pile of gold.

Heaviest Heart in History

No one in the history of the world was burdened in his soul like Jesus on Thursday, April 2, AD 33. No one — no grieving spouse in a solitary house, no weeping parent beside a child’s grave, no heart shattered by a love betrayed, no wordless ache for a wandering prodigal, no desolate soul staring at a terminal test result, no felon in an isolated cell of relentless shame knows the burden that pressed upon Jesus as he walked up the stairs to share the final meal of his mortal life on this earth.

Worship Grows in Gratitude

Often the things that pour off our tongues to others can be complaints of things not going our way or how we’ve been mistreated by others. We’re a rights-oriented culture, and if we don’t get what we think is rightfully ours, we storm off in anger or despair. Often, we slip on the sins of entitlement and discontentment down the slope to anxiety and depression. We can become surrounded by dark thoughts and unmet expectations that weigh down our hearts and put a cloud over our minds.

On the other hand, we will never be able to lift our hearts from despair to worship without expressing thanks to God. The theme of thanksgiving runs throughout all of Scripture. In the Psalms we’re commanded to give thanks to God:

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! (Psalm 105:1)

Thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! (Psalm 107:8)

Remember to Say “Thank You”

The spiritual cost to us of being thankless is much higher than we might think. Thanklessness is not merely the absence of verbalizing a “thank you.” It is a symptom of spiritual dullness, of spiritual poverty. Because it is taking for granted and not appreciating grace being shown to us.

Parents know what this looks like. Children, being born self-centered sinners, naturally take for granted all the blood, sweat, tears, and dollars their parents invest in them. So parents are frequently reminding their children to give thanks.

“Remember to thank your mother for making dinner.”
“Thank your grandparents for that nice birthday gift.”

Why do parents do this? For most, it isn’t merely to get their children to perform a social courtesy. What they want is for their children to see grace and feel thankful. 

Gratitude is a virtue most worthy of our cultivation. Indeed, in all the Christian life, gratitude is to be planted, watered, dressed, and harvested. Gratitude gets at the very essence of what it means to be created, finite, fallen, redeemed, and sustained by the God of all grace.

Our Gratitude Is to Be Pervasive

In everything give thanks. Not in some things, but in all things. Every thing, every area of life is to be a the subject of thanksgiving. There's so much to be thankful for.

• Spiritual things — if you didn't have anything else but Jesus, you would have enough to praise God for all eternity. 
• Simple things — you should be thankful for your families, health, food, and even a glass of water. Thank God for the simple things. Thank God for the people He has placed in your life, for the Fellowship He has provided us here at SRM.
• Sorrowful things — you can even be thankful for the heartaches, the pains, and the sufferings.Romans 8:28 says, "...All things work together for good...." That is, the thing itself is not good, but it is God Who is working all things together for good.

Do you want to live on the highest level of life? Cultivate the attitude of gratitude always and in all things. I don't care how bad, difficult, dark, or mysterious things get; take the ultimate step of faith and say, "God, You're greater than this, and I thank You." You say, "Well, I don't feel like thanking Him." Don't thank Him by feeling; thank Him by faith. You're not told to feel thankful but to be thankful. Nothing shows your faith in the absolute sovereignty of God more than just simply thanking God in every situation.

Abhilasha Dey

II Year

Computer Science and Engineering