When I was a little girl one of my mom's good friends gave me a thimble, I'm not sure if there was an occasion for it or just that she knew I was learning to sew by hand. The next time we saw her friend, my mom prompted me to tell her thank you. "Thank you, Mrs Thurston, for the thimble." I said. "I lost it, but thank you anyway." My mother was so embarrassed, but I couldn't see why... I was just being honest.
As a young Christian I learned that I should be thankful in all things (Phil. 4:6) even if I didn't feel thankful. Saying thank you to God seemed a little bit like my mom's attempt at teaching me good manners. It didn't matter what I felt or if I was being honest, I should give Him thanks, anyhow. Later in life as a wife and mother when circumstances seemed overwhelming to me, I'd hear my husband say "Can't you just be thankful?" So I'd try to think of all the things that I could be thankful for. I still needed to learn that it's not about things to be thankful for, it's just about being thankful.
These days the Lord is trying to impress on me that it isn't just the obedience of thankfulness that He's looking to see manifest in me. Not just a matter of saying thank you, having good manners so to speak. But what He wants to see is a heart attitude of gratitude.
When the children of Israel were grumbling and complaining in the wilderness (Numbers chapter 11) God gave them manna. They were asking for meat, but God gave them bread from heaven, they were not thankful. Then God said to Moses, (paraphrased) Am I powerless among you? In other words, is what God has done for us worthless & meaningless? They kept on whining and complaining so God gave in and He pretty much dumped a blizzard of quail on them and they gathered it up and hoarded it. Pretty soon they were spewing meat out of their noses because of their ungratefulness. "But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was even chewed the wrath of God was aroused against the people..." Numbers 11:33
Romans 1:18-21 is telling us about the wrath of God against the ungodly. These people rejected what they saw was true about the Creator, they worship idols and creatures rather than God, they practice sexual immortality, wickedness, covetousness, and the list goes on. What is at the head of this vile list? They did not glorify God, nor were they thankful.
These stories and verses put a whole new light on my whining and complaining. Whenever I am discontent and looking around at others comparing my life circumstances to theirs... (possessions, position or potential) What I am actually doing is saying 'God you're not enough, you haven't done enough for me.' I can't think of anything more wretched than to say to the One who gave His only Son to die for me... 'That's just not good enough, I want more.'
This is a lesson that God has been teaching me over and over in many circumstances in my life, I wish I could say that my immediate and first reaction to difficult circumstances is to always say with a heart of gratitude, "Thank you so much, my Dear Savior, this is what You died for, and Your sacrifice for me is so much more important than this circumstance." But it does come sooner than it used to, by His grace.
