Gratitude

Gratitude

Always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. –Ephesians 5:20

We’d like to figure out how to water this verse down. We think to ourselves that Paul couldn’t really mean everything. This seems like a tall order for anyone, but especially for those of us who have faced heartbreaking, soul-crushing loss.

And yet we see this kind of worship through gratitude lived out in the life and losses of Job. In the wake of losing nearly everything he owned and nearly everyone he loved, Job fell to the ground expressing gratitude, not just for all the blessings God had given him, but amazingly, for everything God had taken away. “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The LORD gave me everything I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” (Job 1:21).

God gives, and God takes away. But let’s be honest. We just want him to give, don’t we? And we certainly don’t want him to take away the things or the people we love. We tend to think the possessions we have, the positions we hold, and the people we love are ours—that we’ve earned them, that we deserve them. But the truth is, everything we have is a gift. And it is only as we recognize that everything we have and everyone we love is a gift that we can enjoy those gifts with a heart of gratitude that honors God.

Genuine gratitude is a response not to the worth of the gift, but to the excellence of the Giver. If gratitude fluctuates with our estimation of the gifts, then it’s not really gratitude. In reality, that kind of gratitude is disguised idolatry.

I know you can barely stand to think about being grateful in the midst of your loss. You may think I’m crazy to suggest that you could be grateful to God for who he is and all he has done for you as you face the empty chair, the empty bank account, the aching emptiness of what was once your life. But if you refuse to nurture gratitude, you will become bitter. So would you turn your eyes from your loss and disappointment to the great Giver, asking him to reveal more of himself to you so that you might grow in gratitude? Would you ask him for the peace and joy that only those who nurture gratitude are given?

Great Giver, have your way with my possessions, my position, my loved ones. Help me to loosen my grip on all I call my own and accept your promise that you are enough.

DIGGING DEEPER