There is a sickness of sin and selfishness that kills. It destroys. It does its murderous work in so many ways. It vanquishes personal inner peace and joy. It wipes out hope in God. It tortures marriages and families. It constructs an evil wall between people and the very source of life, God in Christ.
On the other hand, when anyone comes to a place where they find themselves in awe of God, and thankful to Him, all the above and every other horrific spiritual illness is cured. Giving thanks to God is "the will God in Christ Jesus for you."
My heart is breaking for the one who has never had the healing experience of genuine thanksgiving. They are hurting so much, and are blind as to why. "Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."(2 Timothy 3:1–4 ESV)
This is a description of our day. Such misery. This morning, I heard the news of how a man murderously drove his car into a Christmas parade that included a group of grandmothers and children. Forty were wounded. Five were killed. This was someone who was "heartless." On some scale, this happens daily in towns and homes all over the place. At the heart of this self-loving abusive sickness is the heart that is "ungrateful."
The cure?
1. Recognize God. We are not an accident. We were created. Life is not meaningless. God has a purpose for our lives. "Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his...Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" (Psalm 100:3–4 ESV)
2. Realize that every good thing that can be known and experienced is a gift from the Lord. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:16–17 ESV)
3. Accept by faith, and always remember, all that Christ has done for you in His death and resurrection. There is so much of the New Testament that could be shared here. Jesus in the past, "slain from the foundation of the world." The cross, and the resurrection. "The promise of our awesome future because of Christ and with Christ! Read the Bible and thank the Lord for all He has given you out of sheer love and grace. "It (made right with God) will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:24–25 ESV) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16 ESV)
4. Have a forceful talk with yourself. David told himself to bless the Lord. He told himself to not forget any of the Lord's blessings. How we talk to ourselves has a hugh impact on our thankfulness. We must not tell ourselves lies, "Nobody expects me to be totally consumed with God, to love God more than anything. God understands my competing passions." We must instead demand of ourselves to be completely thankful. No hypocrisy. The Lord deserves "all that is within me" to bless his holy name. "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." (Psalm 103:1-2 ESV)
5. Depend on Jesus to give you the ability to be thankful. It's impossible for us to give the kind of thanksgiving the Lord desires, with all humility, all the time, life-changingly. So we need to look to Jesus to cause us be thankful. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17 ESV) Yes, and only, "through him." This isn't something we can do through our own abilities. Only through Jesus and therefore, for His glory.
"Father, you deserve all my praise and thanksgiving. The next breath I'm about to take is a gift from you. Every good and perfect thing in life is because of you. And giving thanks to you cures every spiritual battle I fight. You resist the proud. You give grace and power to the humble. Cause me to humble myself and cause me to to trust you to empower me to be thankful. Through the power of Jesus. For His glory."
Richie Rhea
