“Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”
– – W. Tozer

We are going to step away – again – from our series in the Sermon on the Mount for one more week. There is another appropriate theme we should consider as a Kingdom thought. Gratitude! After all, it is Thanksgiving morning as I am writing this blog! This is One Hundred-Fold Ministries, and you have found our Backyard Conversations!

Becoming grateful and content are character traits that form in us when we are abiding well in Christ. And by abiding well in Christ we become even more effective and joyful Kingdom Citizens.

Biblical gratitude is much more than quickly “counting your blessings” or a task to check off the to-do list. Rightly focused gratitude can transform how we view God and His world. A grateful heart can transform how we appreciate others. Gratitude has been called a parent virtue for a reason. When we train ourselves to look for ways to be grateful each day, we find that other Christian virtues mature as well. How nice that we can become more patient and joyful as we become more grateful!

Yet somehow, thanksgiving, in a culture of entitlement, seems to be a lost art. The world reminds us moment by moment that “We deserve a break today” and that our retirement “should be the luxurious, care-free experience we all long for.” After all . . . we earned it! And if we didn’t actually earn it, we feel that we deserve some creature comforts anyway. I mean that is the whole point of feeling entitled. And entitlement and thanksgiving do not live in the same space!

Consider this account from the scriptures that puts a spotlight on gratitude.

Luke 17:11-17
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

That is an interesting line: He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

Even though Jesus did not withhold healing from the nine who did not thank Him, He made a point of noting their lack of gratefulness. Because they had faith, all ten were physically healed. But Jesus’ final words to the grateful Samaritan imply that this man received a deeper spiritual healing in addition to the cleansing of his skin. His gift of thanksgiving was an act of worship.

It was at this point that Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (verse 19). It seems that the man’s return to fall at Jesus’ feet gave him a spiritual wholeness in addition to the physical wholeness he had received!

It seems odd that we, who have been saved from such a weight of sin by Christ’s redeeming blood, would be so slow to be grateful. And, of course, for not only forgiveness, but so many other gifts of grace, mercy, protection, and privilege. What’s wrong with us? We act too often like one of the entitled healed nine rather than the thankful one!

So how do we cultivate an attitude of gratitude?

I believe it is in small things, not large. The delicate petals of a rose, the feeling of newly mowed grass under a bare foot, music that makes you dance, maple syrup. Things like this that give me pleasure are easy to be thankful for. Once I learn this trick, I can begin to go deeper into my heart and soul.

As CS Lewis said,

[We] shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have “tasted and seen.” Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience.


— CS Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Here is a thanksgiving prayer that I found on Scot McKnight’s Newsletter blog this morning. I found it meaningful. (https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/thanksgiving-prayer)

Almighty and Gracious Father,
We give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season
and for the labors of those who harvest them.
Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty,
for the provision of our necessities
and the relief of all who are in need,
to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
Now and forever.

Amen.

This is Dave Scherrer and on behalf of the One Hundred-Fold Ministries team,
We wish Joy and Contentedness to you and yours.

Peace to you!