OPEN:
The first American Thanksgiving didn't occur in
1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians.
The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years
earlier, and it wasn't a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a
group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing
when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with
food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to
God.
There is something powerful about gratitude.
Cicero: “Gratitude is the parent of all
virtues, a virtue that begets all other virtues.”
Meister Eckhart: “If the only prayer you say in
your whole life is ‘thank you’—that would suffice.”
Author Angeles Arrien (Living in Gratitude: A Journey that will Change your Life): “Gratitude
is a state of being that is essential to a life well lived.”
The author of Hebrews is saying exactly the
same thing when she writes:
“Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one
will see the Lord. See to it that no one
fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and
causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.”
But, how do I get there? How do I become a grateful person? How do I get to the root of gratitude?
Gratitude is choice we make in light of God’s grace.
I. The Root of Gratitude is Grace.
The key to peace and holiness is the grace of God.
Margaret Visser (The
Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude): The root grat in the word gratitude means “a
given gift”. It is from this word that
we get our word “Grace.”
Grace is often defined as “unmerited favor”. It is what God gives to us that we could
never earn or deserve. He lavishes on us
his love and mercy. Were we to work our
hardest for ten million years, we would not have earned one drop of Christ’s
blood that was shed on the cross for our pardon. (“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners,
Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8)
Gratitude is essentially the recognition of the unearned
increments of value in one’s experience.
International Encyclopedia of Ethics: Gratitude is “the
heart’s internal indicator on which the tally of gifts outweighs exchanges.”
When I deeply and consciously understand that:
I would
be lost for all eternity apart from God’s grace,
Everything I have is a gift from a
God who loves me unconditionally,
Although
I could never deserve it, I stand completely forgiven,
The result is thanksgiving!
II. Gratitude
is a Choice.
It is vital to our understanding of gratitude to
recognize the little word “Obtain.”
Grace is entirely the work of God, but it is appropriated
to us as we choose to receive it.
“But
to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become
the children of God.” John 1:12
In much the same way, gratitude is a choice.
M. J. Ryan (Attitude
of Gratitude): “Gratitude is a stance we voluntarily take.”
Gratitude is a choice born of contentment.
Philippians 4:11 : “I have learned to be content with whatever
I have.”
1 Timothy 6:6: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
If we think
that we need more in order to be happy, we have fallen into the snare of
materialism and covetousness. If we can’t say “I can be content with whatever I
have,” we are building our lives on a foundation that will bring doom. The average home today (in the U.S.) is twice
as large as the average house constructed after WWII. The National Association
of Homebuilders reports that the average American house went from 1,660 square
feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004. But get this - while our houses have
gotten bigger, our average family size has gotten much smaller. We are getting
bigger houses because we have more stuff.
But, for many
Americans, even bigger houses are not enough to store our stuff. According to the Self Storage Association, a
trade group charged with monitoring such things, the country now possesses some
1.875 billion square feet of personal storage. All this space is contained in
nearly 40,000 facilities owned and operated by more than 2,000 entrepreneurs,
including a handful of publicly traded giants like Public Storage, Storage What this translates into is an industry that now exceeds the revenues of
Yet, surveys show that many Americans feel like they’re just making it, barely able to stay even. But what’s remarkable is that this feeling is not restricted to families of limited income. It’s a generalized feeling, one that exists at all economic levels:
·
39%
of all households making $50,000 a year say that they cannot afford to buy
everything they really need!
·
33%
of all households making $100,000 a year say that they cannot afford to buy
everything they really need!· 27% of all households making more than $100,000 a year say they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. Nearly 20% of these say they "spend nearly all their income on the basic necessities of life."
· Overall, half the population of the richest country in the world say they cannot afford everything they really need.
Hebrews 13:5, 6: “Keep your lives free from the love of
money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never leave
you or forsake you.’ So we can say with
confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to
me?’”
·
This is not fatalistic resignation. It is joyous recognition that God is always
at work in my life.
In Europe there are some bells strung across a
mountain range. There is no rope
suspended from the bells; no human hand ever rings them. Their sound is heard
when the wind blows. In the autumn there
may be a few tingles as gentle winds move the bells, but during the gales of
winter they peal forth their most majestic music.
God brings out the best in us under the
pressure of tough times. Let us thank
Him we are alive today and for the things He does on our behalf in the
present tense: “Thank you Lord for today!”
Gratitude is much more than saying “Thank you.”
·
Not every language has a way of expressing
love (e.g. Meru), but every language in the world has a way of saying thank
you.
·
We say thank you much like we offer benign
greetings to one another. It is a
formality.
·
Gratitude is far more than mere
formality. It is recognizing that
everything is present and possible because of God’s grace, and choosing to be
content in light of God’s grace. (“Godliness
with contentment is great gain.” )
Brother David Steindl-Rest (a Benedictine monk): “Gratefulness
is the inner gesture of giving meaning to our life by receiving life as a gift.”
III. The
Opposite of Gratitude is Bitterness.
Gratitude is a state of being.
Appreciation is the recognition of that which makes us
feel grateful.
Thankfulness is the demonstrative expression of it.
·
Express thanks in words and/or deeds.
·
Gratitude often ignites acts of generosity;
we are moved to offer ourselves to others without expecting anything in return.
The enemy of gratitude is bitterness.
·
Bitterness refuses to recognize grace,
choosing, instead, to dwell on what we’ve earned but haven’t received.
·
Bitterness stems from discontent—in others
and/or in myself.
·
Bitterness destroys—
Relationships, Self-esteem, Productivity
·
Bitterness is a cancer that, if left
untreated, eventually eats away everything necessary for life, leaving a hollow
shell of humanity.
·
An example of bitterness is given—Esau (Genesis 25).
CLOSE:
Gratitude is a choice we make in light
of God’s grace.
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