Grattitude

Gratitude: the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful

O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:15-17 ESV

 

     This section of the Psalms comes from one of the most famous confessions in the Bible.  This chapter deals with King David’s confession of adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed to cover up his transgression.  The famous words of this Psalm is found in verse 10;

 

Create in me a clean heart oh God

And renew a right spirit within me

 

To be fair, this whole section of the Psalm is littered with talk about what is an appropriate sacrifice.  Sacrifice is not only our position and how we interact with God, but also our position and how we interact with others.  So one might be thinking how does sacrifice and gratitude go together.  I hope to get there by the end of this blog and just a heads up, it might have something to do with worship.

 

   My first observation is this, God is not only implying but telling us that we can not buy Him off.  No matter how hard we try, whether it is through our tithe, doing “Godly” things, or not doing something that is ungodly.  Spoiler alert, since God created everything, He already owns it.  We can not give something to God He already owns because it is already His and we are to be good managers of what He gives us.  If we were able to buy God off, it means two things.  The first one is that He isn’t fully God and in incompetent.  This also means we have more power and authority than we need, deserve, or are able to handle.  The second idea is that it makes us manipulative, only doing and giving things for our own benefit.  Sure there could people out there who are truly ultraistic, but at the end of the day, most if not all of us are in it for what we can get out of it.  If we could buy our way to God or His love, how many of us would beg, borrow, steal or just flat out lie to get what we want, no matter if it is with God or others?  My gut feeling is that we have already tried that and eventually it catches up with us in a bad way.

 

   My second observation about gratitude is that it is about accountability.  Gratitude is more than just being grateful or giving thanks.  Accountability is admitting to mistakes, growing/maturing from them, and doing what we are responsible for.  When King David was confronted by the Prophet Nathan about his adultery, David could of pulled out his king card and had Nathan disposed of too.  Instead, David went and he responded to Gods rebuke of his actions and sought forgiveness for what he had done.  He also owned up to the consequences, and was a father to the son he had with Bathsheba and the family strife that continued through out the rest of his life. 

 

   Accountability is doing the things we know we should do, Whether it is how we spend our money, to what we eat, being a good spouse to ones significant other, being a parent to ones children.  Accountability is more about being proactive than reactive.  There are always going to be things that catch us off guard, but when we are proactive, and seek to take care of things that are within in our control, life tends to go better.

 

  My third observation is that gratitude is more than just the gifts and actions.  Don’t get me wrong, actions, along with gifts/sacrifice along with the words that we speak are important, but the more important thing is our attitude or the condition of our heart.  How often do we do or say things as a form of self protection or to make us feel better?  As people, we tend to do or say things to provide either some sort of diversion so people do not see our weaknesses or those spots that are really sensitive.  Or how about when we do things to gain some sort of good karma and to try and right something we did that we feel guilty or ashamed about.  When we do this, we fall into two traps.  The first one is that we make ourselves out to be better people than we really are.  It is more about the show, and less about the go.  In essence, we try and impress people with our words, actions and our gifts.  At the end of the day, we fall down exhausted because no matter what we do or say will ever be enough.  Then we will become burnt out and jaded,  The second trap is that we try and cover up some sort of guilt.  Trust me on this, the guilt and shame will never go away when we do this, and it will send us further into depression and the spinning will keep getting faster. 

 

  My fourth observation is this, gratitude is more than giving gifts or doing good works, or saying thank you.  God doesn’t want our gifts or our words, not that these are unimportant, but He wants us fully committed to Him and His calling.  Gratitude is not only being thankful for what others or God has done, but it is the giving of our whole selves.  This means the good, bad and things that we do not want to see the light of day.  Because of free will, we can decide whether we disown God and suffer the consequences, or embrace Him and His will.  We can call it many things, such as holiness, perfection, sanctification, Christian maturity, but at the end of the day, It is allowing God to restore His full image in our lives and for us to be fully present not only with Him but others also. 

 

  I will leave you with this.  True gratitude not only requires, but demands a response.  This is where worship comes in.  Worship is more than just singing a few songs and hearing a sermon and then walking away to live our lives.  When God is fully shaping us back into His image, we live our lives differently.  Its not that these actions saves us, but it is a response to what God has done and is doing in our lives.  Our gifts and sacrifices can not save us, but it is a response to the one who can and that is Jesus.  Our worship, gifts, and even our sacrifices should point back to God the Creator of all and to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

 

Questions

   What are the things we do or say that hide habits, hurts, and the unspeakables?

   In our accountability, are we reactionary, or proactive?

   How often do we try and earn our salvation?