Gratitude

‘He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan’ Luke 17:16

Gratitude begins from the heart. Gratitude is incomplete until it is expressed. The way to express gratitude is verbally. The Samaritan leper ran to Jesus – he shouted, he thanked God, and he praised God. Some of us are just too cool. It is good to be cool but you should mind where you are cool. You can be cool in certain areas and it will not be cool anymore. How can you be cool with the Person that delivered you from death? You are in the presence of the Person that knew your end even before you were born. He formed you in your mother’s womb. Now you are a ‘big boy’, when its time to dance in thanksgiving before God, you are feeling cool while others are dancing. You’re a ‘big girl’ now, everyone is dancing and thanking Jesus and instead of you to join in, you are thinking “if only they knew how much the human hair on your head costs”. Excuse me! Before you added that human hair, what was there before, was it not human hair? There is nothing wrong with human hair. I am not preaching against it don’t get me wrong. I am just saying instead of it to be a barrier, wave it to Jesus. Gratitude that is not expressed is useless – not useful to anybody. Imagine you have a wife and you try to do stuff for her. She doesn’t say thank you, she takes it as her right. But when you bring her attitude up, she says, “but I was grateful. Even if I don’t say it, God sees my heart”. He does and that heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. That is what the Bible says about the heart of any man. We do not maintain a culture of thanksgiving in God’s Favourite House just because we want to. It is because God expects us to be grateful. When it’s time to shout to God, forget about everything and shout to your God. Verbalize gratitude!

The Bible says the leaper worshipped. For us, though we worship in song, we worship with our lives. We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice [Rom. 12:1]. And the Bible says this is our true way of worshipping God. Ungrateful people feel entitled. People that feel entitled don’t serve. They don’t serve anyone with their body. If you enter marriage and you are an ungrateful person, you will have a problem because you will not serve your partner. Paul says the man and woman don’t own their bodies [1Cor.7:3-5]. You need to serve God with your body, your life, and your substance [Matt.6:21].

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me form and maintain the habit of consistently giving thanks to my Father, in Jesus Name.