Thankfulness

Thankfulness: “To express gratitude,” “Conscious of benefit received.”

Quick question; on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, how thankful are you towards God and those that are a blessing to you? How quick and sensitive are you to giving thanks, even for the “little” things?

What is the Problem with Thankfulness?

As we read in (Genesis 1 & 2), God wonderfully created the heavens and the earth. And then lovingly and compassionately made both man and woman. God wonderfully made man in His own image and likeness. He formed him from the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils, and man became a living soul. A soul that was capable of loving, worshipping, and fellowshipping with God Almighty. What a wonderful plan!!! God created man and everything man needed. He gave man paradise!

But when you go just a few chapters into the Bible, you find that things are so bad that God has to destroy everything on the face of the earth by a flood.

(Genesis 6:5-7), “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

The question we want to address is, “What caused man to forsake the Lord as though God didn’t even exist?!”

The answer is found in the New Testament in (Romans 1:22-25) where it talks about how mankind turned their backs on God. But why? What was the problem? (Vs. 21) tells us why;

(Romans 1:21), “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened”

Because of man’s lack of thankfulness, he became a very wicked creature!

The problem with thankfulness is, THERE IS NOT A WHOLE LOT GOING AROUND!

Another thing we have to be concerned about is that, thankfulness involves how we feel in the moment, and like all feelings, eventually, it fades. Thankfulness is a temporary emotional response to a temporary circumstance. Because of this, it is important to express thankfulness when something good happens. DON’T WAIT!  Express your thankfulness while it is fresh in your heart and mind.

Beware of EXPECTATION

What robs us often of a thankful heart is expectation. We expect our children to obey us. We expect our spouses to do their share around the household. We expect our friends to come running when we need them. We expect to be taken care of, especially when we are paying for their services. We expect God to bless us. And we can go on and on.

Yes, there are many people we depend upon to do their part in making our lives easier and more enjoyable. But wouldn’t it be nice, from time to time, to just simply tell them, “Thank you!”

We Have Much to be Thankful For

God’s Word warns us that in the last days, mankind will be very unthankful;

(2 Timothy 3:1-2), “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,”

We want to be on guard against unthankfulness. One way to do that is to be content. 

(Philippians 4:11), “…for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:”

(1 Timothy 6:6-8), “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”

Count the many blessings that surround you each day. We have much to be thankful for!!! And what should be on the top of our list is all that Jesus went through for us, as we are about to see in the account of the leper that was healed.

The Thankful Leper

In (Luke 17:11-19) we have the account of the thankful leper. Let’s take this account verse by verse to see what we could learn about thankfulness.

• (Luke 17:11a), “…he (Lord) went to…”

Something to be thankful for, and excited about is the fact that God came to us. He did this in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. We read articles all the time about how excited and thankful people are when a star athlete or movie star comes to visit them. We see girls and even men faint at concerts of their favorite singers and musicians. How could we be any less excited and thankful of this timeless truth that God came to us, our Emmanuel, God with us!

• (Luke 17:11a), “…he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee”

Samaria and Galilee were terrible and sinful places as we read in;

(John 1:46), “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth (Galilee)?”

Jesus goes through a lot to get to us. Jerusalem is a special place in God’s heart where He will finally set His throne on earth, and establish His kingdom. This has been His dream and desire all along. But before He gets there, He decided to pass through the midst of 6,000 years of sinful, human history to pick up a few lepers on the way! We should be so glad and thankful He didn’t pass us up!

• (Luke 17:12), “…Stood afar off”

Leprosy is a disease that causes sores over all the body.  You feel ashamed, and cannot go near people who do not have the disease.  The same is with sin.  We feel unclean, ashamed, want to stand afar off, we are ashamed to get too close to Jesus (you stand afar off).  We have no problem getting close to other “lepers,” but sin shames us and keeps us distant from a holy God.

• (Luke 17:13), “And they…”

All ten realized their need, all ten turned to Jesus, and all ten were healed.  Jesus does not turn down any one who comes to Him for salvation.

• (Luke 17:14), “…Go show yourselves unto the priest…”

This reference is to (Leviticus 14:2) “day of cleansing.” This seemed a silly thing for Christ to tell them. Jesus hasn’t healed them yet. They are diseased, and seemingly incurable. So why should they go to the priest?

• • To show that faith is the key to salvation (the faith of a leper). They went believing they would be cleansed somehow.
  • To show the unbelieving priests that it’s not religion that heals and saves. JESUS is the one who heals and saves!
• One out of ten:

(Luke 17:15-18), “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

Even though all ten were healed, only one turned to give thanks. How many of us are truly thankful in our hearts for all that the Lord has done for us? God showers His blessings on all and yet so few turn to give Him thanks.

Stop from time to time and name your blessings.

Make sure your thankfulness is genuine from a grateful heart and not just some superficial fleeing moment.

Our faith in Christ is the key to our thankfulness for all that He has done. If our faith is deep and genuine, so will our thanks be.

(Luke 17:19), “And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”