We’re continuing in our series on gratitude. Last week, we saw how our culture encourages us to entitlement and ingratitude is at the heart of sin. This week we’ll start looking at how to begin a shift towards gratitude.
If I was to ask you, what is God’s will for your life? How would you answer? Before you talk about marriage partners or jobs or kingdom purposes. Here is how the apostle Paul answers the question.
“Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess 5:18
Mmm… not how we would answer the question. Right? It shows that gratitude is at the heart of the Christian faith. Now, many in the secular world would applaud these sentiments. Gratitude is all the rage in the media because of its proven benefits for psychological and relational well-being and health. But Christian gratitude is not an attempt to muster up a thankful heart because you know it’s good for you. Instead, it is a response to grace. And here is grace:
Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! Philippians 2:7-9
Paul Miller describes this exposition of Jesus’ life and death as a J-curve. He started at the left hand side of the curve in a place of glory and privilege. He had divine rights that were his legitimately. But instead of grasping on to them as we often do, he gave them up… for us. Us who were sinners and rebels. He came to die but through his death resurrection life burst forth and his position was restored in even greater glory. This is grace. Why did he do it? Out of love. For us.
As believers we need to pause. If we’re been in church a while, this message is familiar. But familiarity with the gospel often breeds contempt. Which often breeds ingratitude.
John Piper has stated that every week, even as a believer of more than 60 years, he marvels that God could have chosen him to be his child. When did we last marvel at that? Such wonder is rare in longstanding believers. But that wonder is essential for thankfulness. For we will only wonder when we see our salvation as a totally undeserved gift. And each exposure of our sin should lead us to wonder ever more deeply at how incredible Christ’s love for us really is. The J-curve is truly remarkable.
Sometimes it helps to study other religions or philosophies to see just how extraordinary this is. Islam sees its followers of Allah as mere servants, submitting to their master and hoping to gain his favour through good deeds. Buddhism says salvation is to be rid of all your desires, and so through meditation and self-denial we can escape from our attachments. Humanism says we’re just evolved apes out of pitiless, random world where we have to make do by ourselves. Christianity says in the gospel Christ, the God of the universe, came personally to draw unteachable, self-centred rebels to himself as his children, welcomed and accepted into his family. And he chose you to be his. Out of the whole universe, God not only wanted you, knowing full well the depth of your sin, but he gave everything to have you for himself. Pause for a minute and think about that.
This puts your own job dissatisfaction in perspective. It puts the fact that you even have food to eat today as entirely undeserved. And now all you have is grace.
The humanist narrative while recognizing the importance of gratitude has no-one to be grateful to. For if achievements are all self-generated or simply based on ‘luck’ or ‘good fortune’ then our gratitude is nothing more than another self-reliant attempt to do life by ourselves.
But if you are a child dependent on the kindness of your Heavenly Father then each day will give countless opportunities for us to notice that kindness and to overflow with gratitude to Him.