A Time for Gratitude

You probably know genuinely thankful people. That’s something to be thankful for. But sadly, many people around the world are ingrates—ungrateful people! Gratitude, a vital part being gracious, is a diminishing virtue. Having a self-centered nature, people are quicker to criticize than compliment, to gripe rather than express gratitude.

People must learn to be grateful and express it. Responsible parents usually have to repeatedly tell their young children, “Say ‘Thank you.’”

It’s important that people frequently say “please,” “excuse me,” “I apologize,” “I’m sorry,” etc. And we should especially be saying to others and praying to God often, “Thank you!”

Yet in our age of increasing selfishness, “common courtesy” is less and less common. The biggest problem is that fewer and fewer people have biblical values, including “love your neighbor as yourself.” Many Bible students regard ingratitude as so egregious as to be one of the worst sins! It clearly is an underlying root of other sins!

The worst ingratitude is ingratitude toward God—our Creator, Provider and Savior! There is so much to thank Him for.

Thank God for His creation and for giving us His “Instruction Book,” the Holy Bible! Thank God for providing our necessities plus countless nonessential benefits! Thank God for answered prayer and the blessings we didn’t think to pray for. Thank God for the “big miracles” and for the “little miracles” like, perhaps, helping you to find your phone.

A significant example in the Bible of both gratitude and ingratitude is the account of Jesus Christ healing 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19). Lepers were those suffering with skin diseases who were miserable and considered incurable. In this true story, 9 out of 10 people neglected to even express thanks for their spectacular healing! Jesus remarked: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”

Think of the many ways Jesus Christ served, sacrificed and suffered during His earthly ministry, including people’s lack of gratitude. God the Father and Jesus Christ love all people and have a plan to offer the opportunity for salvation to everyone! (see John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). With that in mind, none of us has as much gratitude as that amazing grace deserves!

Genuine gratitude is expressed!

Being “thankful” implies being full of thanks, but keeping it inside doesn’t benefit anyone else. To just say “I’m thankful” for this or that often only means “I’m glad.”

Grateful people regularly make others happier with their “thank yous.” And they are happier themselves, for “there is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35, Good News Translation). Gratitude gratifies!

There are numerous ways to communicate gratitude—whether verbally, or with a note, card or gift. Interestingly, financial tips are often called gratuities. Even many of the sacrifices commanded under the Old Covenant were expressions of thanksgiving to God.

It’s gracious to say “Thank you!” with a warm smile even when people are getting paid to serve us, such as waiters, store clerks, flight attendants, military personnel and first responders.

People with a positive mental attitude are more grateful. They look at the glass half full rather than half empty. “Perfectionists” who compare their situations with “perfection” are bound to be disappointed. Instead, remember and be thankful that there are millions of big problems you don’t have! Shamefully, the more our society becomes affluent, comfortable and technologically advanced, the more the complaining! (See Deuteronomy 8.)

Rather than dwelling on problems, “count your blessings,” in the words of an old hymn.

The Bible has much to say about gratitude and ingratitude. The apostle Paul wrote that “in the last days” ingratitude and many other sins would be worse than ever—that “men will be lovers of themselves . . . proud . . . unthankful . . .” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Tragically, many people these days have a victimhood mentality that breeds self-pity, division, anger and animosity. In fact, it’s often an excuse for violence! People should realize that expressing gratitude promotes good relationships, better mental and physical health, and inner peace! Read Philippians 4:4-8!

Gratitude requires humility

Yes, sincere gratitude needs humility! Many, many scriptures warn against the sins of pride and related forms of self-centeredness.

A prideful victim mentality thinks, “Poor me.” People want to blame others for their problems rather than accept responsibility for their bad decisions.

The most horrible example of pride and ingratitude is that of the powerful archangel Lucifer, described in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19. God had appointed him to be a leader among the angels, but he wasn’t satisfied with that high position! He lusted to take the place of God! With that rebellion, Lucifer became Satan the devil and the angels who followed him became demons.

The colossal example of almost constant ingratitude among a group of people is the story of the Israelites after their Exodus from Egypt and brutal slavery. God performed spectacular miracle after miracle to liberate them and then provide for their needs while bringing them to the Promised Land. But they were chronically forgetful, doubting, self-pitying, fearful and complaining.

Remember that God did not liberate the Israelites because they were deserving of His mercy and blessings. Toward the end of the 40 years, Moses wrote, “The Lord your God is not giving you this good land . . . because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people” (Deuteronomy 9:6). They should have been the most grateful and obedient people in world history! Instead, Moses wrote, “From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt . . . you have been rebellious against the Lord” (verse 7).

Instead of daily thanking God, many self-pitying Israelites complained incessantly. Their complaints about Moses were actually complaints about God, since God was making the decisions and His presence was obvious!

Their past life of slavery was not enough to make them truly humble or grateful for freedom. The freed Israelites still had a slave mentality and resistance to change. All of us should think about that in view of the physical freedoms we are blessed with now and the spiritual liberty we are able to receive through Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-12, the apostle Paul gives us a stern admonition as he warns against the bad examples those ungrateful Israelites provide for us! As he says in verse 12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Thanksgiving days

Thankfully, a number of countries have an annual national Thanksgiving Day—some official and others unofficial—plus other days to remember and give thanks for independence, veterans, famous leaders, the end of wars, etc. Sadly, these noble days are no longer enthusiastically celebrated by most citizens as they were in more patriotic times. On holidays, there often is more gluttony than gratitude.

As in other places, Thanksgiving in the United States was instituted to give thanks to God. And with its vast national blessings, it has so much to be grateful for. Yet many Americans today have forgotten their history, forgotten the Bible and forgotten God! While many still acknowledge Him, so many do not—not even offering a prayer of thanks at the traditional meal.

National days of thanksgiving to God with no roots in pagan religion are honorable observances we may happily celebrate. Yet the most important “thanksgiving days” are unknown to or rejected by most people—the sacred festivals instituted by God and taught in the Bible!

God made the Sabbath, the seventh day of every week, a holy time to rest from work, worship God and give thanks. The fourth of the Ten Commandments is the command to observe the Sabbath. The wording in Exodus 20:8-11 emphasizes God as our Creator, and the wording in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 emphasizes God as our loving Savior and Liberator.

In addition, God sanctified and commanded seven annual festivals! Each festival is a sacred time of worship, fellowship and giving God thanks, with focus on the particular step that occasion symbolizes in God’s amazing plan of salvation! (To learn more, request or download our free study guides Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest and God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.)

Of course, we should be giving thanks and praising God in our prayers and thoughts every day—and many times each day.

When we experience good things, thank God, as it ultimately comes from Him (James 1:17). When adversity comes, we can thank God that He is with us to comfort us and will ultimately work things out for the ultimate good! (See Romans 8:28-31.) When you want to have a picnic and it doesn’t rain, thank God. If it rains, thank God that it’s helping the farmers—and the food supply.

Many reasons to thank God!

Thank God that you are a human being, created in the image and likeness of God! (See Genesis 1:26-27.) We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). We have minds with a spiritual aspect through which we are able to have an intimate relationship with God.

Thank God for your physical senses! Think of how we keep breathing and our hearts keep pumping blood and food gets digested without our needing to think about it! Actually, there are many autonomic systems in our bodies that automatically keep us alive and well. We should frequently thank God for these!

Rejoice that we in this modern age benefit from some of the amazing advances in scientific knowledge, achievements and inventions!

Thanks to modern photography, computers and the Internet, we have the privilege of seeing amazing nature programs! God designed our “blue planet” with countless conditions and processes that make life possible. In fact, Earth is called the “Goldilocks” planet because it is so unique among all other planets in providing conditions that are “just right”—perfect for us to survive and thrive.

Egregious and absurd, though, is that most nature programs do not credit God but mindless evolution—yet the truth is plain!

Read in Romans 1:18-32 about the “wrath of God” being directed toward the many “fools” who did not give glory to Him “nor were thankful”—willfully ignoring the evidence of a Creator all around us and worshiping and serving the creation rather than the Creator. The latter part of this passage points out that such thinking leads to all kinds of immoral perversity.

Even when His answer is “no”

When we pray, we should not wait for a “yes” answer from God before giving thanks to Him. Since God knows what is best in the long run for each of us, it is often a big blessing when God’s answer to a request is “no” or “not now.”

God is working things out from a vastly higher vantage point (Isaiah 55:8-9), allowing temporary disappointment for a better eventual outcome (again, see Romans 8:28). Coming to see Him “turn lemons into lemonade” is tremendously inspiring! And a temporary “no” is sometimes God’s way of testing us before He says “yes.”

Remember that God’s primary concern is helping us spiritually so each one “endures to the end” of life and receives the gift of eternal life in the Kingdom of God! (Matthew 24:9-13). That takes precedence over all our temporary desires. Let’s thank God that He stays focused on the long-range goal!

The message of Scripture on this subject is clear and powerful. We who desire to please God must be people with gratitude in our hearts and gratitude on our lips and gratitude with our actions—regularly thanking others and continually thanking God. Every day should be a thanks-giving day!