Recently I was looking at a list of the richest men on the face of the earth and it blows your mind to think about the resources they have at their disposal. Reading that, I could not help but imagine the kind of life and the things I would do if I had that kind of money at my disposal. Just the thought brought a smile to my face……. but back to reality……. I do not have that kind of money, so does that mean I live a miserable ungrateful life? Do we really understand what it means to be thankful from a biblical perspective? To do so I believe we have to experience three levels of gratitude consistently.
The first level is being grateful when we get what we want. This is the easiest and most natural level of gratitude and many of us live here. If all of Bill Gates wealth was transferred into my account, I would not struggle to thank God and shout of His goodness from the rooftops. It is good to be thankful at this level but we need to go deeper. We should also be grateful for getting what we do not want. We are to give thanks in everything for this is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus for you. (1Thes 5:18.) Many times we get upset when we go through tough times and when we do not get what we are praying for. We begin to question Gods love for us. We need to get the revelation that God knows what is best for us and thus we should trust Him.
The next level of gratefulness is where we all need to get to because it will revolutionize our attitude and mindset. This is when we give thanks for not getting what we deserve. The truth of the matter is that we are all sinners who deserve hell and hell alone yet Jesus took our place and made a bridge connecting us back to God the father. We did nothing to deserve this second chance yet He gave it to us anyway. Salvation, a home in heaven, sunshine, rains, food clothing shelter family and all the other things we take for granted, many times thinking we have a right to these things. The truth is we don’t, all we deserve is nothing but hell for the wages of sin is death! God owes us nothing, we owe Him everything. Christ took the hell He did not deserve to give us the good things we do not deserve. So, in which of these three levels of thankfulness do you operate from? Endeavour to get to level three so that you can truly give thanks in everything.
And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20 (NLT)
Source-grateful.org
Word of the Day:Thankfulness Redefined!
Word of the Day:Thankfulness Redefined!
