Thanksgiving 1

My worship pastor has a consistent tendency to include somewhat rhetorical questions with the list of worship songs which are to be played in church. I have included several of these questions below:

"Do we have anything to be thankful for, I know it sounds trite, but when was the last time you truly felt thankful? Is it because you've nothing to be thankful for, or are we all still lying on the grocery store floor blue in the face to get our way? God loves a grateful heart."

I have included this one because quite a number of us have seen children who fail to respond well to the goodness of their parents, and we think to ourselves, "The ungrateful little whelp, after all that is done for him! I am glad that I don't throw temper tantrums like that."

But you've got to think:

2 Peter 3 says that people somehow manage to forget the previous judgements of God so that they can say that God is slow in bringing the judgement which is hanging over them, even though God is being patient for their benefit. So if you are not a Christian and you know that God is calling you to humility and gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus, go to those both of those places--at once!

On the other hand, if you are God's child, do not be ungrateful by denying God's:

1. Wisdom--by telling Him that you know what you need better than He does
2. Power--by assuming that you don't have what you think you need because He can't give you what you think you need
3. Love--by thinking that God is withholding good gifts from you because He wants to punish you for sin or to see you suffer (Hebrews 12 indicates that suffering is discipline which is to result in your sanctification, not punishment for sin which has already been laid upon Jesus).

Additionally, it occurs to me that anything less than gratitude toward God is idolatry, which is evil. God has described idolatry as adultery for the purpose of showing us how evil it is.