The Secret Gift of Thankfulness

In a world so full of fires, wars, shooting, looting, hardships, chores…it can be hard to sit back and be thankful.

We set aside a day, maybe once in a while quiet our minds, and toss up a line to heaven; a too-small detached nonchalant phrase of gratitude because “good Christians” are “supposed” to do that.

But do hollow words fall empty to our God?  Does His head turn towards us simply because we do outward duty, without an inward sincerity or transformation?

The Israelite’s in the Bible also struggled with an un-thankful heart. Hebrews 3 tells us they were a people known for, “hardening their hearts”.  And I wonder if forty years in the desert might do that to anyone?

But as I read through Hebrews this morning, I was a little dumbfounded.  I noticed God didn’t sit back and take blank rituals in accepted exchange for His people’s doubt and penetrating unbelief.  For truth is…

• God wants more than empty shells walking around with stones for hearts.
• He wants a people alive, living, people acknowledging their presently given freedom and benefits.
• He wants people not grieving their situation, wanting their past, or some perfect future.
• He longs for a people who can praise Him right where they are, with sincere thankfulness.

And we can sympathize with the desert-dwellers, those wandering after being freed from Eygpt looking for the promise land following Moses. But, I wonder if God wasn’t so understanding?

God says in Hebrews 3:10, “I was provoked (displeased and sorely grieved) with that generation…They always err and are led astray in their hearts, and they have not perceived or recognized My ways and become progressively better and more experimentally and intimately acquainted with me.”

God goes on to share that because of His peoples ungrateful, discontent, ever-wandering hearts…a generation would pass before they could enter His rest.

And I don’t know about you, but it seems God didn’t care so much about what the Israelite’s did as much as He cared about how their hearts grew “progressively more acquainted with Him”?

Too often we think thanksgiving as, “just another holiday”.  Another day to stay home and eat good food, watching football.  But I petition all of us to align our thinking with what scripture tells us.

Soft, gentle hearts leading out of the desert are created by giving thanks, and praising The One who saved us.

God goes on in Hebrews stating, “[Therefore Beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [ which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God”.

And wouldn’t you say we can be aloof?  In a world where we “get”, shop frantically for Christmas, living life just fine most days without Jesus, failing constantly to give from a place of praise to He who has done great things?

And I am not sure about you, but I can often look back, remembering the safety of living in obedience to “man”.  Or I can look too far forward, simply longing and wishing I was somehow transported to the promise land.  But either way, whether back or forward, if our eyes aren’t fixed on gratefulness to the Lord, we can miss the gift of rest that comes with patiently waiting on His time and purposes.

And friends, a desert will do one of two things to us; it will surface the bitterness and harden our hearts, or  it will drive us to The One who guides us by grace, even when we don’t deserve it.

And I have often wondered how great was God’s grace to keep the cloud and fire to guide their way, even though their hearts were hard, even though they constantly complained, betraying their Redeemer by building a golden calf.

But friends, our God is love and mercy and grace.  He longs to not only lead us, but for us to appreciate His ways, thanking Him for whatever season we are in?

• Are you in Egypt?  He promises to hear your cries and rescue you.
• Are you in the desert?  He will guide and direct you, with love and patience and protection.
• Are you in the promise land?  Let’s throw up our hands and praise Him for His blessings.

For God cares less about the terrain of our feet, and more about the condition of our hearts, because nothing breeds faith more than a heart that longs to seek Him wthi Thankfulness.

And today friends, will you commit to a lifestyle of praising Him?

Hebrews 3:15 tells us, “Today, if you would hear His voice and when you heart it, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion [in the desert..]”  Heb 3:13, “Instead warn admonish, urge, and encourage one another every day, as long as it is called Today..” “Hold our confidence and original assured expectation firm and unshaken to the end,” scripture continues.

So, let’s fix our eyes on His faithfulness, making hand-written lists so we don’t forget His goodness, if we must.  Let’s come to Him in humble gratitude instead of drifting, wandering, hardening our hearts like the Israelite’s did.

Because friends, He has done so much!  Will you give thanks with me today?