Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermons

Home > Sermons

An Attitude of Gratitude

Being thankful enables us to overcome our problems instead of being overcome by them.

Introduction

Not long ago, as I was talking with one of my teenage sons, he recounted an experience he had on a commuter train outside of New York City. It seems he was surrounded by middle-aged, potbellied, balding men who were worn out. Their clothes were wrinkled, their shirts were heavy with perspiration as they hunched over in their seats and clutched their copies of The Wall Street Journal. My son said, "Dad, they all seemed depressed."

That image stayed in my mind because I've noticed the same thing. Have you noticed how few people appear, from the looks of their faces and from their body language, to be really happy? As you observe people from your automobile, or see them walking in the grocery store or the shopping malls, you see face after face looking tired, worn out, bored, or just drained of any emotion. You can go for hours in northern Virginia without encountering a single truly jolly person.

Life gets more serious as we get older; we know that. But one gets the impression that even kids are not as carefree as they were in earlier days. It's a fact that team spirit and school enthusiasm have significantly weakened at the secondary level all over our country. High school students are a lot more serious than they once were. When you notice young people not having as much fun as they're really entitled to have, you realize this is a symptom of a serious problem.

There are a myriad of reasons. Young people are from hurting and broken homes. The economy is not as promising as it once was; kids face doubt about the future. They face pressure to do well academically to get into a good school—a cheap school but a good school. They're studying harder. They face scary problems in schools; violence is commonplace. There's a lot of pressure to have sex—but don't get pregnant! There's confusion about sexual identity, and the rules change rapidly. Many young people don't have a compassionate, wise person to help them sort these things out. No wonder it's not as much fun to be a kid nowadays.

One of the most important things any church can do for young people is help them laugh. I love to go on Sunday nights and peek my head into the room where our young people gather for evening meetings. I'm always encouraged to see these kids grinning about some goofy skit or laughing along with the leader as he shares the Good News with them in a way that they can appreciate.

Our churches and homes can be places of joy. They will be if we learn some of the secrets of joy. I believe one of the secrets of a joyful spirit is coming to understand the graciousness of God. This mighty, holy, awesome God, whom we worship, is at heart a gracious, generous, giving, compassionate, merciful person who cares about you more than you care about you.

If we can come to appreciate and understand this, and let it work its way through our lives—our thoughts, our emotions, our relationships—we can be transformed by the grace of God. We will become more thankful people, and thankful people are joyful people. Thanksgiving Day is nearly here, and it's an appropriate time to reflect on this.

The importance of being thankful

Luke has given us a story from the life of Jesus that helps me reflect on the importance of being thankful for God's goodness to me. And this story can help us to grow in our own understanding of this important issue. With the story of the ten lepers, Luke emphasizes the rarity of a thankful spirit. Luke is the only writer who tells this story. It may be that Luke actually met the thankful leper years later and heard the story from this man's very lips.

Notice Jesus' final words: "One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. And Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give God praise?'" Only one had taken the time to thank the person who had made his recovery possible.

Gratitude is rarely expressed. A clergyman included this item in his annual parochial report: "Nine persons lost at sea." When the congregation read it, they expressed shock and amazement. He said, "Well, eleven people came to me and requested prayers for those going to sea. But only two asked me to give thanks for a safe return. So I assumed the other nine were lost at sea."

A man writing at the post office desk was approached by an older fellow who had a post card in his hand. The old man said, "Sir, could you please address this post card for me?" The man gladly did so, and he agreed to write a short message on the post card, and he even signed it for the man, too.

Finally the man doing the writing said to the older man, "Now, is there anything else I can do for you?"

The old fellow thought about it for a minute, and he said, "Yes, at the end could you just put, 'P.S. Please excuse the sloppy handwriting.'"

How often do you hear people express sincere gratitude? Try an experiment. Keep track of the number of complaints you hear each day, and compare that with the number of times you hear people express sincere words of gratitude.

I was on the football field at our local high school the other day, where my son was running cross-country. As I watched those boys and girls, I was preoccupied with recent problems. I also remembered my cross-country days twenty-five years ago and naturally breathed a prayer of thanksgiving. The prayer was something like, "Lord, thank you so much that I'm not running cross-country any more."

Then I sort of loosened up a bit and looked around me. The sky was blue; the leaves were yellow; the air was crisp. I began to enjoy the beautiful day. I forgot my problems and quietly thanked God for the beauty of the world around me. My spirits lifted as I began to appreciate the goodness of God, right there in the middle of the football field.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-2 Paul writes, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be … ungrateful." Are we really grateful? Or are we more apt to complain than to give God thanks?

"Gratitude" is from the same root word as the word "grace." A person who has begun to accept how gracious God is to us becomes a grateful person. "Thanksgiving" is from the same root word as the word "think." So, to think about life accurately is to thank God continuously in the midst of life. Paul says in Colossians 4:2, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." A person who's not thankful is a joyless person.

Three reasons to be thankful

Let me give you three simple reasons to be thankful. First, be thankful for all the resources God has given us: creative minds, the ability to choose and act decisively, limitless knowledge to be discovered, the ability to grow and expand our horizons in art, music, literature, humor, and beauty—not to mention God himself, who cares and hears and has given us his Word to show us how to live.

Perhaps some of you here today are in deep trouble. I would think that, whatever difficulties you might be experiencing, you could sit down and without any trouble make a list of at least fifty concrete things for which to give God thanks. And that's probably the best therapy for a troubled spirit.

A second reason to be thankful is the providence of God. Over and beyond all things that happen, God is at work—guiding, directing, and bringing about his purposes. Job said he'd learned one thing: the purposes of God would not be thwarted or frustrated. If we accept that, we'll always be able to give thanks.

In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells about an incident that taught her the principle of giving thanks in all things. It was during World War II. Corrie and her sister, Betsy, had been harboring Jewish people in their home, so they were arrested and imprisoned at Ravensbruck Camp.

The barracks was extremely crowded and infested with fleas. One morning they read, in their tattered Bible, from 1 Thessalonians the reminder to rejoice in all things.

Betsy said, "Corrie, we've got to give thanks for this barracks and even for these fleas."

Corrie replied, "No way am I going to thank God for fleas." But Betsy was persuasive, and they did thank God even for the fleas.

During the months that followed, they found that their barracks was left relatively unsupervised, and they could do Bible study, talk openly, and even pray in the barracks. It was their only place of refuge. Several months later they learned that the reason the guards never entered their barracks was because of those blasted fleas.

The third reason for giving God thanks is that we're commanded to be thankful. For our welfare, we're told over and over to give thanks. Paul says we're to be joyful and pray continually. We are to give thanks in all circumstances—"For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Isn't that why so much of our worship is devoted to giving thanks? We say, "Lift up your hearts."

You say, "We will lift them up to the Lord."

We say, "Let us give thanks to the Lord."

You say, "It is right to give him thanks and praise."

We read the Scripture, and you say, "Thanks be to God."

We usually close with a prayer of thanks.

The other night I was with a group of sixty or so men in our church, and one of them shared with us how he had been learning the lesson of giving God thanks in difficult times. He talked with some pain about serious job problems over the last seven or eight years and how his wife had been recently diagnosed with cancer. He said that he had been learning to give God thanks in the midst of these difficulties.

Choosing, as an act of the will, to thank God in whatever circumstances shows spiritual maturity. It not only pleases God, it puts our problems in proper perspective.

John Henry Jowett, a British preacher of an earlier generation, said this about gratitude: "Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic." What did he mean? He meant that gratitude, like a vaccine, can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled, discouraged spirit. Like an antitoxin, gratitude can prevent the effects of the poisons of cynicism, criticalness, and grumbling. Like an antiseptic, a spirit of gratitude can soothe and heal the most troubled spirit.

To stop in the midst of a situation and simply breathe a three-word prayer, "Thank you, Lord," can change everything. If you want to be a joyful person, you must develop an attitude of gratitude. A thankful spirit produces a joyful person. People who focus on their difficulties are difficult to be around. People who focus on their blessings are a blessing to be around. There's no shame in weeping over our difficulties. Jesus weeps with us. But gratitude is the ground out of which a peaceful, thankful, trusting spirit can develop. Our tendency is to focus on our problems rather than on our blessings.

What about discouragement?

I read once that the Devil was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. They were a fiendish lot. There was hatred, jealously, deceit, lying, and pride—all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled, DISCOURAGEMENT.

When questioned, the Devil said, "It's more useful to me than any other tool. When I can't bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me."

The enemy of joy is discouragement. It causes one to want to quit. If we're going to learn to live productive lives, we've got to learn to overcome discouragement. The more discouragement a person can overcome, in a sense, the greater that person is.

A man whom many believe was the greatest American president is a good example. When he was 7 years of age, his family was forced out of their home, and he went to work. When he was 9, his mother died. He lost his job as a store clerk when he was 20. He wanted to go to law school, but he didn't have the education. At age 23 he went into debt to be a partner in a small store. Three years later the business partner died, and the resulting debt took years to repay.

When he was 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him, and she turned him down. On his third try he was elected to Congress, at age 37, but then failed to be re-elected. His son died at 4 years of age. When this man was 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At age 47 he ran for the vice-presidency and lost. But at age 51 he was elected president of the United States.

The man was Abraham Lincoln, a man who learned to face discouragement and move beyond it. Did you know that it was Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of the Civil War in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving? Lincoln had learned how important it is to stop and thank God in the midst of great difficulties.

 People of every age have problems. Young people might not like their face or their figure or their friends or their grades. They might not succeed in sports or get a part in the play.

A few years later the problems become different. There's not enough money or the job isn't working out. There may be alcoholism or divorce or infertility or the death of loved ones. Sadness, loneliness, and disappointment confront all of us.

There are three options for dealing with discouragement. The first is simply to give in to it. Let it overwhelm you. Let it eat at you as you focus on the negative. Become depressed, negative, and hopeless as the disappointments keep coming. The light at the end of the tunnel may be just another train coming at full speed. We can give in to discouragement.

Second, we can deny the problem. My husband doesn't really have a drinking problem. This sickness really isn't anything to worry about. My daughter is lonely, but it will pass. In denying our problems, we either minimize them or we spiritualize them, saying, "Praise God, it doesn't matter."

Don't deny the problems in your life; it doesn't help. It won't help your children to encourage them to deny serious problems. We do them a favor, rather, when we help them meet discouraging situations in a better way, which is the third way: facing our problems with realism and with faith, thanking God in the midst of them.

The psalmist caught this spirit in Psalm 97 when he reminds us that whatever is going on, the Lord reigns and the Earth should be glad. As long as God rules, I can be joyful. God is over all things. He's not responsible for all things, but he's promised to work through all things and bring good to those who trust him. It's not unusual for God to use the very worst developments to bring about the best end.

Conclusion

Let me close with two stories. A ship was wrecked, and the only survivor washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He was exhausted. He cried out to God to save him. Every day he scanned the horizon, searching for help. Finally, he managed to build a rough hut and put his few articles in that hut.

One day, coming home from hunting for food, he was stung with grief to see his little hut in flames and a cloud of smoke. The worst had happened. But early the next day, a ship drew in and rescued him.

He asked the crew, "How did you know I was here?"

They replied, "We saw your smoke signal."

Maybe the difficulty you are experiencing now is a smoke signal that will lead to a greater blessing.

A famous English Bible scholar named Matthew Henry was once attacked by thieves and robbed of his purse. He wrote these words in his diary: "Let me be thankful. First, I was never robbed before. Second, although they took my purse, they didn't take my life. Third, although they took my all, it was not much. Fourth, let me be thankful because it was I who was robbed and not I who did the robbing."

I sometimes think we could help each other a whole lot by simply asking, "What are you thankful for today?" instead of "How are you today?"

Jesus said, "Weren't nine others healed? Where are they?"

How many of our needs God has met. How many of our prayers God has answered. Have you thanked God? Will you be overcome by your problems, or will you choose to thank God and go on?

© John Yates, 1992
PT Audio Issue #110
www.PreachingToday.com
A resource of Christianity Today International

Related sermons

Lessons from Lepers

Thankfulness creates an opportunity for further blessing.

Only the Grateful Believe

Thankfulness is the evidence of deep faith.
Sermon Outline:

Introduction

I. The importance of being thankful

II. Three reasons to be thankful

III. What about discouragement?

Conclusion