Mark Twain once said, "If you pick up a starving dog
and feed him and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the
principal difference between a dog and a man."
Is it true? Are humans basically ungrateful? Consider
this passage as it relates to gratitude:
Rom 1:18-32
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth
by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to
them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile
and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became
fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful
desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies
with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever
praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to
shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural
ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned
natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men
committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due
penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it
worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind,
to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of
wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant
and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their
parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless,
ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do
such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but
also approve of those who practice them. (NIV)
Let us think so that we might THANK! Let us think today
about the great losses incurred when we fail to be properly grateful for what
our Creator has given us. Three "W’s" ....
1. Failing to be thankful, we lose WISDOM!
20-22
My family traditionally begins the evening meal
with a prayer of thanks. When they were old enough, we began letting our
children say the meal prayer. Of course at first they would ask for a pony, a
new bike, etc. They soon learned the more important things that should be
included in the prayer. At Thanksgiving we had the whole family over. My
nine-year-old wanted to say the prayer. It went like this: "Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for the turkey, the rolls, the mashed potatoes, the red jiggly
stuff, and the bread stuff even though I don't like it. We ask that You not
let us choke on this food." AT LEAST HE WAS LEARNING
GRATITUDE!
When Gratitude is absent, note the regression of both intellect
and emotion in verses 20-22
- Did not glorify nor give thanks: Ungrateful
- Futile thinking: Irrational
- Darkened hearts: Uncompassionate
- Became fools: Full Folly
Consider this parallel passage – (note specific
parallels in bold):
Eph 4:17 This I
say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,18 Having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart: 19 Who being
past feeling have given themselves over unto
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
(KJV)
2. Failing to be thankful, we lose TRUE WORSHIP!
23-25
- Gratitude IS true worship. Without it there is only a counterfeit,
perverted worship.
- Everyone around Israel worshipped the CREATURE not the CREATOR.
- An ungrateful culture exalts self by prioritizing personal
preferences
- "Our way over God’s way" is a form of idolatry – self-worship is
creature-worship
- Materialism is idolatry! Colossians 3:5 says:
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
which is idolatry. (NIV)
3. Failing to be thankful, we
lose WHOLESOMENESS! 24-27
- With Wisdom and Worship gone, Wholesomeness is
impossible!
- Every debauched civilization has proven it -- Israel
included.
- Ungratefulness leads to perverted worship and that to perverted
behavior.
- Ungratefulness led Israel to Baal worship and gross
immorality
Is gratitude important? Consider the fruit of
ingratitude:
Rom 1:29 They have become filled with every kind
of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent,
arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their
parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
(NIV)
A grateful heart! That’s what we need!
CAN YOU FIND REASONS TO THANK GOD? If one should give
me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look
for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable
to detect them. But let me take a magnet, and sweep through it, and how would it
draw to itself the most invisible particles by the mere power of attraction! The
unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies: but let the
thankful heart sweep through the day, and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it
will find in every hour some heavenly blessings; only the iron in God's sand is
gold.