Are We Truly Thankful?

Are We Truly Thankful?


Even though there are some people who truly are thankful in all things, most people are only thankful when they have to be. This goes for Christians as well. That is a terrible thing to have to say, but it is the truth. Why else would we have to have a special day to offer thanksgiving? If we gave thanks all the time like we should, there would be no need to have this holiday. The Bible say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:34) We are probably not usually ungrateful and unthankful on purpose. It is probably because it is our nature as humans to take things for granted and it is nothing new. People were not thankful in Jesus’ day either. In Luke, chapter 17, we are told about an event that warranted thanks.

11 As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12 As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, 13 crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

14 He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. (Hmmm, do we remember how Jews felt about Samaritans?)

17 Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 17:11-19)

Let’s take a look at three aspects of thankfulness that we need to get from this Scripture.

There are no good excuses for un-thankfulness

We as Americans love to make excuses. After all, nothing is ever our fault. No one in jail has ever committed a crime. It was always someone else’s fault. When a little child gets in trouble, they will always blame it on another person. More often than not, adults do the same. When a politician gets in a bind, they will always find something else to pin the blame on. (Hmmm, again!)

Making excuses is nothing new. Think about the first humans on the planet. They are told not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree. Then, they both do and have to face God. God comes to them, and he asks what has happened. He first approaches Adam, and what does Adam do? He makes an excuse. Adam said, “it’s not my fault!. “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12)

Then, when God gets to Eve, she makes an excuse. “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” (Genesis 3:13) These excuses seemed valid, but God does not buy excuses. God had told them not to eat, but they did anyhow. Even though they had excuses lined up, God punished Adam and Eve because excuses were not enough.

In this story of the ten lepers, the nine that were not thankful probably had excuses that they thought were good for not coming back to thank Jesus. Now, we have no way of knowing if this is what they thought for sure, but knowing how we are as humans, we can easily assume that they thought they were legitimate. We love making excuses for not doing the things we should, but those excuses do not fly with Jesus. When the one truly thankful leper came back to Jesus, Jesus honored him; however, Jesus did ask, “Where are the other nine?” Jesus expected every one of them to be thankful, and he expects that of Christians today.

Everyone has something to be thankful for

There was a newspaper article in the St. Petersburg Times. In this article, some of the local children made out lists of what they were thankful for. Here were some of the highlights.

• I am thankful for my family because they love me and give me food – Andrew, age 10

• I am thankful for flowers and trees, oh so tall, for our van to go places, especially the mall – Victoria, age 9

• I am thankful for our furry little squirrels that bring great happiness to our lives – Ryan, age 7

• I am thankful for thanksgiving because I like to eat ham – Maria, age 5

• I am thankful that my dad has a permanent job and my brother is in remission from Leukemia – Anastasia, age 10

• I am thankful for Thanksgiving because it is a happy holiday, and it’s when families get together and have a time of celebrating God’s goodness. The Pilgrims are a good example to me because no matter how hard things go, God is always with you and will provide for all your needs. When God provided for them, they did not forget him, but praised him with thanksgiving – Natalie, age 10

All these are nice but how impressive is the wisdom shown by 10 year old Natalie? She gets the picture of what God wants. God wants us to be thankful in all circumstances because we all have something to be thankful for. If we call ourselves Christians, we have even more yet to be thankful for. The Apostle Paul writes: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Philippians 4:6-7) And we need to remember that Jesus Christ came to earth and took our place on the cross. We should have went there to pay the penalty for our sins, but he was blameless and took our place so that we might live. Now, all we have to do is believe and trust in Him as our Savior, and our slate will be wiped clean. We don’t have to pay the price of death. He already did that. That act alone should be enough to make us thankful for all the days of our lives. But, God does not stop there. He continues to bless us every day and we take it for granted.

Think about it this way. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend church meetings without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion in the world. And, if your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare. And we could go on and on. We are a blessed people with much to be thankful for. We must be a more thankful people. The Psalmist tells us “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High.” (Psalm 92:1)

We as Christians need to set the bar for thankfulness

The Gallop Poll reports that 84% of Americans claim to be Christians. Of those 84%, less than 10 % of Americans are deeply committed Christians. These committed Christians are far, far happier than the rest of the population. Committed Christians are more accepting of others than the average American, more involved in charitable activities, and are absolutely committed to prayer. While many more Americans than this 10 % profess to be Christians, most actually know little or nothing of Christian beliefs, and act no differently than non-Christians.

What is the problem with this picture? Christians are called to be set apart from the world, yet only 10% of the population are acting that way. This leaves an astounding 74% of Americans that claim to be Christians and yet act no differently than those not claiming to be Christians. Is it any wonder why the church is not growing?

As Jesus healed these ten lepers, most of them were Jews. They were God-fearing, church going people.

They belonged to the moral majority and were known as the people of God. However, when they were healed, only one leper returned to give thanks, and this leper was a Samaritan. Samaritans were not allowed to go to the synagogue/church in this day because they were looked upon as outcasts and lowlifes. The “church” people of the day wanted nothing to do with any of them because they were not worth the time of one of God’s chosen ones. Yet, he is the only one who showed thanks. When the church should have been setting the bar of thankfulness, the world was actually leading the way.

The same is true today. Think of some of the Christians you know. They are bitter and mean. They never think of anyone but themselves. They are proud, arrogant and rude. The problem is that people outside of the church are often more pleasant than those in it when it should be the other way around. Christians are meant to set the bar in things like love, kindness, gentleness, and thankfulness. We are meant to live in such a way that non-believers will want what we have. However, according to statistics, 74% of those who claim Christianity are living either no differently or worse that non-Christians. I know that this statistic does not apply to this class, but if it did, that would mean that 3 out of 4 of us are not any more thankful than those of the world.

We, as Believers, need to do better. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 God desires us to be thankful and not make excuses. He desires us to be thankful because everyone has something to be thankful for. He desires us to be thankful because we are to be the example to the rest of the world of what it truly means to be thankful. How do we do this? It is only through the strength of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With His power and His leading, we can be thankful in all circumstances. This week, let us make a list, even if only in our mind, of everything we can think of that we can thank God for – and then do it. Thank God for all He has done for us because a thankful spirit opens the door to a closer relationship with God. After all, to enter His gates, we must do it with thanksgiving. It’s time we start doing it more.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. (Psalm 100:4)

Note 1: Notice in scripture “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”, the word “in” is not the same as “for”. This means you do not have to be thankful for just be thankful “in” the circumstances. And “God’s will” means he wants you to be thankful in all not and that the bad circumstances is always His will.

Put this note as result of some questions in class discussion.