This past Sunday, God allowed me to communicate His Word to His people concerning thankfulness from Romans 1:18-32. (You can listen to the sermon here). I was greatly challenged by the Word of God concerning the dangers of being ungrateful. As I studied Romans 1, I came to the conclusion that the root cause of natural man’s descent into further decadence and depravity is a direct result of two prevalent attitudes–man refuses to glorify God and man refuses to thank God. These two attitudes really merge into one painful concept: We by nature are ungrateful people. It was ingratitude to God’s good gifts that led Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and plunge into death and destruction. Satan used that very concept to turn Eve, “God is not good to you!” was the theme of his temptations. It was ingratitude to God that led the Hebrews into wilderness wanderings (not to mention a variety of punishments throughout their time)–He had given them a land and a promise, but they didn’t think God was giving them enough, they wanted more. . . they wanted it to be easy too. In fact, when unbelievers today reject the gift of eternal life, they are in essence, demonstrating their ingratitude to Christ for giving all to redeem them from the curse of the Law. We are, by nature, self-worshiping, ungrateful people.
It should not surprise us then, to see the morality and vileness on display in our world today, this vile direction is a direct cause of man’s unwillingness to be thankful to God. God’s unspeakable gift of eternal life and glorification with Him is spurned in light of self-worship and self-adoration. If ingratitude is the root of natural man’s “waxing worse and worse” how much more devastating for the children of Light to walk in the darkness of being complaining, grumbling, cynical, bitter, unforgiving–that is ungrateful–people.
If Christians viewed the simplest and smallest bit of ingratitude as the beginning of a descent into moral ruin and bitter misery, that which steals glory away from God; we might be more careful to walk with a song of praise on our lips and a heart of thankfulness all year long, not just on the last Thursday of November. What a radical revolution for the glory of Christ could be manifested by humble Christ-followers living each moment with an eternal heart of gratitude.
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” -I Thess. 5:18
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