Someone has written, “Gratitude is formed once you realize what you have been given, who you are, and from whom all blessings flow.”
KirklandI cannot imagine how any believer could fail to realize even one of the three.
And yet…
The spirit of gratitude and its expression too often is either missing altogether or lies dormant in the hearts of even believers, many of whom are quick to ask and slow to thank.
In his first column as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Brad Atkins declares at the outset that we live in an era in which what he terms an “attitude of gratitude” is rarely seen in the lives of “those blessed by God” and even “his chosen people.”
The Powdersville pastor entitled his premiere column “A Thankful Heart.” In it he offers his own gratitude to God as well as to those God has used “to be the source of so many blessings in my life.”
Our new convention president is right in identifying an element that is missing in the spiritual lives of far too many of us. Giving thanks should be our response each day, and even moment by moment, to a loving and gracious God. Such response is more than simply appropriate on our part; God expects it of us.
I doubt that any of us would be so foolish as to say that we have received nothing from God for which we are thankful. Perhaps some have received too much, given freely, and yet many have not cultivated the spiritual exercise of counting our blessings as the hymn says, “one by one.”
Of course, there are times in life when gratitude to God pours out of our hearts like a rushing river, unrestrained, unstoppable.
I well remember the day when I learned I had passed my “exit exam” and would receive my degree from Erskine Seminary. I immediately ran – yes, I ran – to the seminary’s chapel and fell on my knees at the altar and said over and over again, “Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.” I remember many such occasions when I could not hold in my gratitude to God and said it aloud in my car or wherever I was when I realized how blessed I am by God. I’m sure you have had those moments, too. Thanks be to God.
Sometimes, though, expressions of thanks to God may be walled up and unreleased behind a dam built of sadness, hurt, disappointment or anger.
One problem may be that life has not turned out the way we expected. “If you have a hard time being grateful,” a minister wrote, “perhaps you’ve stewed in your own pot of unmet expectations for too long.”
There should be a consistency in our prayers of thanksgiving to God, when all is well and when it is not.
With the psalmist, we ought to give thanks to God “when the pastures are clothed with flocks and the valleys covered with grain.” We should also, according to the prophet Habakkuk, rejoice in our God and his salvation “when the fields produce no food, there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls.”
For the believer, giving thanks should be as natural as breathing. For many, however, it is not. Some find it difficult to say thank you to the waitress who refilled our tea glass or the stranger who held the door for us as we entered a store. For many, it is even difficult to thank those who have contributed much to our lives, perhaps so often that we take them for granted.
How it must sadden the heart of God when his children fail to thank him for his goodness.
The “attitude of gratitude,” as our convention president characterized it, should not remain undeveloped in our lives. It has to be cultivated and improved by use over time.