How thankful and grateful are we?                   

Are we thankful and grateful people, or are we what the KJV calls “murmurers”, those who seem to often grumble or complain?  God, in his word, is actually very firm and harsh against complainers, ungrateful murmurers. We must overcome this tendency to not be deeply grateful even for the smallest things. Israelites – former slaves mind you – didn’t take long to start murmuring and complaining to and about Moses, for lack of water and food (Exodus 15:24; 16:2; 17:3). This was even after God’s Red Sea miracle.

Passover season is coming up soon. It’s a remembrance of all the wonderful love, forgiveness and gifts of reconciliation and eternal life we have from God.  It’s a time you’d think we’d all be so grateful and thankful.

If we understood that once we commit our lives to God Most High, every detail of our lives is known to Him. Every thought, every worry, every hair on our head – He knows it all. He sends good things and allows “bad things”. But when we really understand Him and His total involvement with our lives, we can actually learn to be grateful even for the hard times in our lives.

That is why Paul teaches us in Philippians 4:6-7 (one of my favorite verses) that, no matter what, share all your concerns with God, but with thanksgiving.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7)

“IN everything, with thanksgiving”. Yes, even the death of your son or daughter or losing your job or being told you have stage 4 cancer, thank God that he is there for you. I know from many years of doing it.  It brings peace.

But back to everyday life: are we grumblers and murmurers, or do we exude thanksgiving?

I remember watching a video of children who, for their Christmas, did not get what they had hoped for. I don’t keep Christmas, but I’m making a point. People, friends, relatives had bought these children various gifts, but none of the gifts could seem to bring joy to those spoiled children. They didn’t get quite the gifts they wanted,  so they threw the gifts down, cried and complained and it was just awful to watch.

As grownups, maybe we don’t act or react so openly bad like spoiled brats – but I hope you think about this. God does not like murmurers and complainers, as I’ll show shortly. But God really appreciates His children who express gratitude, satisfaction and appreciation when they are given something they didn’t have before -- even if it’s not perfect in their eyes. That can be a healing, or a gift, or something you didn’t have before – but now are so grateful and express it profusely.

I admit, I have been a complainer too often as well. I hope you can see it in your own life too. It must stop. We must overcome complaining. I started this blog as a Bible study for me to grow in this, but then thought I should share it. 

Expressing thankfulness and gratitude needs to be taught from the time someone is a baby. A grateful person will always be a more content, happier, upbeat, positive person. But a murmurer will never be a consistently happy person. So being grateful makes you happier and makes God happier with you too.

The best way to teach our children or even our congregation how to be thankful and grateful is by our own EXAMPLE.  When life isn’t quite right, how do we react? When YOU receive something, especially if it’s not quite exactly like you’d hoped it would be, what do our children and grandchildren SEE in us? Do they see and hear a grateful mom and dad – or a murmurer and complainer?  Either way, our example is teaching them lessons for the rest of their lives. They’re watching. So is God.

Let your children hear the way you express gratitude for your neighbors, for your boss at work, for your church pastor, for the sermon he gave and the points you gained from his sermon. Or do they hear us criticizing his sermon?  I’ve done that. I’m sure many of you have. Do they hear us making derogatory or positive statements about our neighbor? Either way, we’re teaching them.  

Praising someone is a nice way to express gratitude and appreciation. When was the last time you praised your boss? Or your wife? Or your husband?  When did you last praise your children?  When was the last time you thanked your children for being children you are proud of? Or for how they helped clear off the dinner table or how they made their bed?  Expressing praise is a form of showing gratitude.  Children will feel this and someday may more likely express their own praise and gratitude.  

Besides being their example of gratitude, we should also be sure to be actively teaching our children to say “thank you” out loud, every chance they get.  I taught my children during meal time to express gratitude to their mom for having prepared such a nice dinner and even say things like “Mom, this tastes so good! Thank you for dinner!” instead of complaining about something.  If we had a meal without gratitude expressed, I’d ask them, “Kids, before you can leave the table, have you forgotten something?”

Encourage your children to express gratitude to their teachers, or their principal, or their coach for all the time he spends with the team. Encourage them to even write a note of gratitude and thanksgiving to teachers and others.

Imagine having leprosy.  What a discouraging thing that could be. There was a time ten lepers begged Jesus to heal them. He told them present themselves to the priests, and on the way, they were healed. But only one bothered to come back to thank Yeshua/Jesus for making him well and healed.

Jesus/Yeshua, the Son of God, was appalled and shocked by that!  Please take time to read the whole story in Luke 17:12-19.  I’ll pick up at verse 15. Notice how shocked Yeshua was – at verse 17-18.  Do WE leave Jesus feeling shocked at our inability to express thanksgiving to him more than we do?

Luke 17:15-19    “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

17 So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?  18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"  19 And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well."

The other nine were “lucky” that God didn’t put the leprosy back on them for their ingratitude. God certainly will be more likely to keep blessing us when we’re grateful – than when all we can do is complain or be ungrateful. 

Let’s see now how GOD views complaining vs. being THANKFUL for what He does for us and gives us.

Philippians 2:14-16  “Do all things without complaining and disputing,  15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…”

Jude says this about the ungodly in verse 16: “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” 

David reminds us how upset God became with Israel when they chose to worship a gold calf they had made instead of Him, after all God had done for them.

Psalms 106:19-27  “They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the molded image.  20 Thus they changed their glory Into the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,

22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, Awesome things by the Red Sea.

23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them,

Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,

To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land;

They did not believe His word,

25 But complained in their tents,

And did not heed the voice of the Lord.

26 Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them,

To overthrow them in the wilderness,

27 To overthrow their descendants among the nations,

And to scatter them in the lands.” 

When the twelve spies returned from checking out the Promised Land, remember ten were very negative. So Israel cried and complained. This upset God so much that he decreed that all who were 20 years old and above would die in the wilderness and never see the Promised Land. And the ten spies who inspired doubt and fear were killed in a plague from God (Numbers 14:36-37).

Are you seeing how upset God feels when we murmur, grumble and complain?

God inspired Paul to put complaining in the same category as idolatry and sexual sin! Did you realize that? Imagine THAT!  And those complaining were destroyed by God for an example to the rest of us.  

1 Corinthians 10:6-11  “And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."  8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor COMPLAIN, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for OUR admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

After preparing this blog, I had to realize how ungrateful I can sometimes be too. Too often, in fact, and I’ve had to repent. I hope you will too, and ask God to help you overcome murmuring and being ungrateful and become a very grateful and thankful person no matter what, instead. We CAN do this if Jesus truly becomes our new life.

Think about how Jesus handled things. There was hardly any food to feed many thousands, except some loaves and a few small fish. What would YOU do? What did Jesus do? He THANKED God for the insufficient food – and God made it multiply.  Be honest: would you have given thanks for food that clearly was not enough to feed thousands?  Yeshua DID! But too many of us don’t even bother thanking God every time, for every meal we eat

Matthew 15:35-36  “So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.”

Jesus even thanked God for the bread and the wine he was serving at his last Passover, knowing full well the wine pictured HIM, his spilled blood. The unleavened bread he broke and gave them to eat was his body given for us. He thanked God for that (Luke 22:19-22), even with the betrayer right there! 

What would you do if you were told you’d be killed violently if you prayed to God in the next 30 days? When Daniel heard that, he thought, “now this is something I need to pray to God about” and then did so-- with thanksgiving! We might have prayed about it silently – but with thanksgiving?

Daniel 6:10   “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and GAVE THANKS before his God, as was his custom since early days.”

Ponder this finally:  What if God told us that at the end of each week, he will take away everything He’s given us that we don’t thank Him for each week? What would we have left?  So don’t let another day go by without thanking God for his high calling, his Spirit, His SON, your spouse and FAMILY, that you’re alive, that you have something to eat, for your pastor, for your country.  Let’s all be more thankful.