Grateful: thankful or appreciative for benefits or kindness.
Ungrateful: not thankful; showing no appreciation.
Have you ever thought about how easy it is to be grateful when things are going your way? I know that I can't just be speaking for just me when I say, "It's VERY easy!!" What about when things exceed your expectations? Have you ever thought about how easy it is to become complacent or even ungrateful? For example, think about some simple things: we know that we need rain in order to have the pretty green grass, beautiful flowers and beautiful gardens, right? So when the rain comes, we are initially so grateful. But what happens when it rains longer than we think it should? Those same folks who were grateful for the rain can become the first folks in line complaining about the number of days in a row that we've had rain! We don't typically mean any harm, but we can easily become ungrateful and we start complaining about the very thing we were so happy to get.
Look at the ten lepers in Luke 17:12-17. When those lepers saw Jesus entering into the village, they (all 10) "...lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," and Jesus said, "go show yourself unto the priest and it came to pass, that as they went they were cleansed. One of them saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face.." at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks. Jesus said "...were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" Surely the nine were very appreciative for being cleansed, but so ungrateful that they did not come back to give thanks.
The children of Israel are another example. They were grateful to be out of Egypt from under the hands of their hard task masters, but by the third experience on their journey, they started to murmur and complain about the very one that had brought them out. They sang God praises after He made a highway in the midst of the Red Sea, but not too far on the other side they started complaining, "would to God we had stayed in Egypt." They were very grateful in short term, after crying out to be delivered (or ungrateful) in the long term.
But as it turns out, we really don't have to go that far back for an example; most (dare I say "all") can look in our own lives. For instance, some of us might have prayed long and hard for a spouse, but when we get blessed with one, about six months in some of us probably wish that he or she would change, when most of the time it's us that need to change! When we were going to the altar, we were so grateful, but six months later, it's all "woe is me!" We find ourselves becoming ungrateful and we start wondering where did I get this woman or man from and why didn't I see that they were like this before?!
Let's learn to be grateful, my friends, for the Lord is not under any obligation to even wake us up in the morning! So let's first be grateful for Him, for people, places, things and for the person that the Lord has allowed us to become. Instead of talking about the things we don't have, let's celebrate all the many blessings that we do have in our lives!
With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment