Chapter 10: Unthankful
CHAPTER 10
UNTHANKFUL
In Jesus’ day, leprosy was a terrible disease to have. Its victims not only became disfigured, they were also outcasts. No one would come near them. In fact, Moses’ law required that people with leprosy had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” wherever they went so people would know to stay away (see Leviticus 13:45). It was a sad, lonely existence.
One day while Jesus was walking along the road toward Jerusalem, He encountered a group of these sick, lonely men — ten of them. They stood at a distance, as they were supposed to, and begged Him to help them. And He did. He told them to go and show themselves to the priests, who were the ones who could officially pronounce lepers cleansed. And as the sick men went to do this, they realized they were completely healed.
Can you imagine how thrilled those men were? They must have been jumping up and down with glee. But only one of them — one man out of ten — bothered to go back to tell Jesus thank you (see Luke 17:11-19).
That’s pretty bad, we think. How could those nine men be so ungrateful? Jesus healed them from a horrible disease that was ruining their lives. They could at least have said thank you!
And yet far too many of us are guilty of the same sin of unthankfulness.
Spiritually speaking, our condition was once far worse than the physical disease of leprosy. We were not diseased, but spiritually dead. We were slaves to the world, to Satan, and to the passions of our own sinful nature. But God, in His great mercy and love, reached out to us and gave us spiritual life (see Ephesians 2:1-5).
That’s a far greater miracle, with infinitely greater benefits, than healing from leprosy. Yet how often do we give thanks for our salvation? Have you stopped today to express heartfelt gratitude to God for delivering you from the domain of darkness and transferring you to the kingdom of His Son?
The truth is, we owe God thanks for our very lives. Paul said that God Himself “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). That means that every breath we draw is a gift from God. Everything we are and everything we have is a gift from Him. And you know that, of course, but how often do you stop to give Him thanks?
At the end of a day at school, do you ever take time to say, “Thank you, heavenly Father, for giving me the ability and opportunity to prepare for my future life?”
Do you sit in your room and look around and say to God, “Everything here is a gift from You. Thank You!”?
When you play tennis or sing in the praise band or mix paint, do you ever stop to thank God for the talents you were born with and the skills you’ve been able to acquire?
Do you ever ride your bike or skateboard through the park and shout thanks into the wind for the trees and the sky and the ability to move?
And when you give thanks at mealtime, is it routine and perfunctory, or is it a heartfelt expression of your gratitude to God that He provides for all your physical needs?
Taking for granted all the blessings that God has so richly bestowed on us and failing to continually give Him thanks is one of our “acceptable” sins. In fact, far too many Christians wouldn’t think of it as sin. Yet Paul, in his description of a Spirit-filled person, said we are to “[give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
Note the words always and everything. That means our whole lives should be ones of continually giving thanks.
Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do. It is something we are commanded to do. As God warned the Israelites, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Failure to “remember” the Lord and give Him the thanks due Him is sin, an affront and an insult to the One who created us and sustains us every second of our lives. And if, as Jesus so clearly stated, loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind is the great and first commandment, then failure to give thanks to God as a habit of life is a violation of the greatest commandment.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul described the downward moral spiral he observed in pagan society of that day — everything from gossip to perverted sex and murder. How did it all begin? Paul told us in verse 21: “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (verse 21, italics mine). These people’s ever-increasing wickedness actually began with their ungodliness (failure to honor God as God) and their unthankfulness to Him. Their moral degradation was a result of God’s judgment on them as He progressively gave them over to the inclinations of their hearts.
And here’s the scary thing: Paul’s description of the Romans’ moral depravity could be applied to our society with hardly a change of words. I can’t help but wonder if we’re also suffering God’s judgment for our failure to honor Him and give Him thanks. And we Christians contribute to this situation, along with society at large, as we fail to give God the thanks we owe. In fact, we may be more guilty because we should know better. That’s still another reason for us to practice giving thanks to God always and for everything.
We should especially give thanks when we have experienced an unusual provision from God or deliverance from some difficult circumstance. While working on this chapter, for instance, I flew to São Paulo, Brazil, for a ministry opportunity. After clearing customs, I went to the baggage claim area along with more than 150 other passengers from my flight. Now I should tell you that I’m usually tempted with anxiety at this point because I’ve had so many delayed-bag incidents. And sure enough, my bag didn’t appear. The pressure began to build as bag after bag went by on the conveyor belt, and mine was not among them. I did not want to have to deal with a lost bag in a foreign country.
Finally, after about two-thirds of the passengers had retrieved their luggage, my bag appeared. As I pulled my bag off the conveyor belt, I lifted a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving to God. I did it again as I unpacked in my hotel room.
Now a delayed-bag incident may seem trivial to you, and in the course of a lifetime it is. But when you have to wear the same clothes for two or three days and replace toiletry articles in a foreign drugstore with unfamiliar currency and a language you don’t know, it doesn’t seem trivial at all. I was very grateful to have my bag that day.
Life is full of events that delay us, inconvenience us, or obstruct or block some plan of ours. In the midst of these events, as I have explained, we should fight against anxiety and frustration. But when God does bring relief or when we see Him deliver us from the possibility of such an event, we should make it a special point to give Him thanks.
IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES?
Let’s pursue the baggage-claim scenario a bit further. Suppose my bag did not arrive with me on the flight or it never arrived. Should I still have given thanks?
Before we look at the answer to that question, mentally insert into this story some predicament of your own, either an actual event or some imaginary one you hope never happens. This will help keep the following answer to the question from being theoretical.
So the question is Are we to give God thanks when the events do not turn out as we had hoped? The answer is yes. Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
But note that this command is different from the one in Ephesians 5:20 that tells us to give thanks to God for everything. I believe, considering the context, that in Ephesians, Paul was exhorting us to develop a habit of continual thanksgiving for all the blessings God so graciously pours out on us. He was describing one characteristic of a Spirit-filled life: a thankful heart.
In the Thessalonians passage, however, Paul instructed us to give thanks in all circumstances, presumably even those we don’t feel thankful about. Was Paul asking us to give thanks by sheer willpower when in our heart of hearts we are truly disappointed? The answer to the question lies in the promises of God found in Romans 8:28-29: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
Note that first line: “For those who love God all things work together for good.” The meaning is that God causes all things to work together for good. “Things” — that is, circumstances — don’t work together for good themselves; rather, God directs the outcome of those circumstances for our good.
And what is the “good” anyway? It’s defined a little further down: being conformed to the image of God’s Son. God intends to use all our circumstances, good and bad (but in the context Paul had in mind, especially the bad ones), to make us more and more like Jesus.
So in situations that do not turn out the way we hoped, we are to intentionally give God thanks that He will use the situation in some way to develop our Christian character. We don’t know exactly how He might use it, for God’s ways are often mysterious and beyond our understanding. So we do it by faith. Trusting in the promise of God as explained in Romans 8:28-29, we obey the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in the circumstances.
Further, as we are in the midst of a difficult circumstance, we have the promise of Romans 8:38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Again, we must cling to this promise by faith. But if we can do that, we have a dual assurance that enables us to give thanks in this particular difficulty. First, by faith we believe God is using or will use it to make us more like Jesus. Second, we believe that even in the midst of it all, we are enveloped in God’s love.
So the giving of thanks in a disappointing or difficult situation is not a matter of gritted teeth and sheer willpower. It is always to be done by faith in the promises of God. If we do that, we are giving thanks with our lips and with our hearts.
As we cling to the promises of God, we can say, “Father, the circumstance I am in now is difficult and painful. I would not have chosen it, but You in Your love and wisdom chose it for me. You intend it for my good, and so by faith I thank You for the good You are going to do in my life through it. Help me to genuinely believe this and be able to thank You from my heart.”
YOUR TURN
“Be filled with the Spirit … giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18,20)
ENGAGE
1. Make a list of at least five blessings God has given you. Why is it important for us to thank Him for these blessings and make such thankfulness a natural part of our lives?
2. Where does the faith come from to believe and thank God even in the midst of difficult circumstances, when you don’t feel thankful?
3. Describe a challenging time when you were — or were not — able to give thanks. What did God teach you through that experience?
4. What are some practical ways you can be sure to take time each day to thank God for His daily provision and spiritual blessings?
BRING IT TO GOD
Raise your own prayer of thanksgiving to God, thanking Him for the gift of your life and specifically for the five (or more) items on your list.