Gratitude

RESPONDING TO THE FATHER’S HEART
Gratitude is an Act of Worship

When we enter into the Kingdom of God, having responded to the call of God we do so as a disciple of Christ. We quickly come to the realization that the life we have been given is not ours but His and that our lives are built around one purpose, to follow Him.

Os Guines writes “..calling is a reminder for followers of Christ that nothing in life should be taken for granted, everything in life must be received with gratitude.” But how many of us take for granted all the Lord has blessed us with. (The Call p.195)

Albert Carnes wrote, “Man’s first faculty is forgetting.” In the busy world that we live in it is so easy to forget.

Os Guiness continues, “Ingratitude and forgetfulness are ultimately moral rather than mental; they are the direct expression of sin.” (The Call)

People pride themselves as needing no one or no thing, including God. The result is many have no sense of gratitude. Today the “world has transformed a sense of debt into a sense of rights and entitlements.” (The Call)

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln said, “We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God. Forgetfulness results in bad statements such as the one made by television cartoon character, Bart Simpson, as he prays over his dinner, “Dear God, we pay for all this ourselves. So thanks for nothing.”

The Apostle James wrote, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

Daily the Father showers us with blessings, yet in our busy schedules we have little or no time to thank Him.

How sad to think where mankind has come to since creation. Created in God’s image, given destiny, dignity, value and worth, called to co-partner with God, yet mankind today is so self-centered that he cares for nothing or no one other than himself.

David, the great king of Israel, wrote these words “For you formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139v. 12,13)

David’s heart of gratitude came as a result of him recognizing how God saw him and cared for him. (See Psalms 139:1-12) In verses 17,18 of this same Psalm we read, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with you.

David fully recognized that all that he was, all that he had and all that he would become was because of God and nothing else. He had a history with his heavenly Father and nothing would prevent him from following the One who had called him. This One who had, “ hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”

When we come to the realization, as David did, that the One who has called us, loves us with unconditional love, we are obliged to respond with heartfelt love, and gratitude. When our hearts are captivated by the cost of the cross, then our hearts will worship with gratitude.

Oz Guiness writes (P 197 The Call) “…calling contributes to faith its own sense of wonder and gratitude, because of its insistence on God’s sovereign initiative and grace in the call.

When we come to the realization that Jesus called and chose us, not because we are worthy, but simply “because in his grace he loves us” then we are compelled to worship Him with a heart of gratitude.

In response to God’s mysterious grace of calling G. K. Chesterton said, “Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace.”

Heart felt gratitude to God is a result of our seeing clearly as did Job, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Without gratitude I become self centered and self reliant.

I am reminded of a song we learned years ago that goes like this, “I will come and bow down at Your feet Lord Jesus in Your presence is fullness of joy, there is nothing there is no one who compares with You I take pleasure in worshipping You Lord.”

When our hearts are filled with gratitude then we will come, willingly to bow in humble gratitude to the One who gave His all. As we do we find our hearts are filled with absolute joy.
Nothing in the whole world can give us this, only the creator and sustainer of our souls. And in this place we find great delight and pleasure as we worship our Creator, our Lord and Savior, our God, our King and our Father.

Gratitude should be as natural as breathing, but we must deliberately stop throughout the day and give thanks to the One who loves us with infinite unconditional love. As we do “the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His goodness and grace.”