Tag: gratitude

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1 Samuel Devotionals

Never forget

Cross at dawn

When the residents of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their brave men set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons… (1 Samuel 31:11-12)

I suppose it’s easy to forget who the residents of Jabesh-gilead were and why they risked their lives to retrieve the bodies of Saul and his sons.

But back in chapter 11, the first act of Saul was to organize the rescue of their city. They never forgot that.

In the same way, I never want to forget what Jesus did for me, always serving him from a heart of gratitude.

I was reading Psalm 86 this morning, and it really resonated with me after reading this story.

I will praise you with all my heart, Lord my God,
and will honor your name forever.

For your faithful love for me is great,
and you rescue my life from the depths of Sheol. (Psalm 86:12-13)

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Colossians Devotionals

Overflowing with gratitude

Heart of Gratitude

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him…overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6-7)

For some reason, those last words really grabbed my heart.

“Overflowing with gratitude.”

Does that describe me?

Not living my Christian life out of obligation.

But living my Christian life out of sheer gratitude for what Jesus did for me.

Gratitude will keep me rooted in Jesus. I’ll want to be built up in him. I’ll want my faith in him to be firmly established.

Father, let me never get blasé about my relationship with you. Let my Christian life never become a drudgery. But let me always walk with you each day overflowing with gratitude. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Romans Devotionals

That you may be glorified

For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.

Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

Father, let those words never be said of me. I was created by you and for you. So in my life, be glorified.

Be glorified in my speech, my thoughts, and in my actions. Let my whole life be worship to you.

As I live each day, let my heart overflow with gratitude to you, transforming the way I think and act. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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2 Kings Devotionals

“Forgetting God’s kindness to us,” revisited

Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favor, and the Lord heard him, for he saw the oppression the king of Aram inflicted on Israel.

Therefore, the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, and they escaped from the power of the Arameans. Then the people of Israel returned to their former way of life, but they didn’t turn away from the sins that the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.

Jehoahaz continued them, and the Asherah pole also remained standing in Samaria. (2 Kings 13:4-6)

God’s grace is pretty amazing.

Despite the fact that Jehoahaz and the Israelites had turned their back on him, when Jeohoahaz cried out to God, God graciously helped them, delivering Israel from the Arameans.

But after life returned to normal, they showed no gratitude for God’s kindness to them.

Instead they just returned back to their sin, living their own way.

How often do we get into trouble because of our sin, cry out to God for help, and in his grace he delivers us?

And how often do we soon forget the kindness God showed us and put him to the side, living our own way?

Let us not forget God when life is going well, taking his kindness and love toward us for granted.

As Paul wrote,

…do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

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Colossians Devotionals

A heart of gratitude

Colossians

I know I wrote about having a thankful heart on Monday, but to Paul, this seems to be an important theme. And if he thinks it’s important, so should we.

How important is thankfulness to Paul? So important that he talks about it three times in three verses.

And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17)

If we have grateful hearts, it leads to peace in the church. After all, if our hearts are full of thanksgiving, particularly at the grace we have received from God, there isn’t much room for complaining about others for their failings.

If we have grateful hearts, Christ’s words come naturally flowing out of our lips in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

If we have grateful hearts, it shows not only in our singing, but in every word that we say and everything that we do. Our whole life becomes a sacrifice of praise to God, as we seek to please the one who loved us and saved us.

May our hearts always be characterized by gratitude towards God.

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Luke Devotionals

The grace by which we live

Luke

As I read this passage, it reminds me of the importance of remembering the grace by which we live.

We see it first in Jesus’ talk concerning forgiveness. Jesus makes it crystal clear: when a person repents, you must forgive. (Luke 17:4)

To which his disciples replied, “Lord increase our faith.” (5)

In other words, “We can’t do it. We’re not strong enough spiritually.”

But Jesus replied,

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. (6)

The reality is, we only need only the tiniest amount of faith to do what God calls us to do, even forgive.

Why? Because of who we are putting our faith in. By his grace, he empowers us to do what he asks.

He doesn’t just tell us what to do and then stand back to see whether we’ll succeed or not.

Instead, if we come to him saying, “I choose to trust you. I choose to believe you are good. I choose to believe you want my best,” and we take the smallest step of faith to obey, by his grace, he will move mountains, even the mountains of bitterness and unforgiveness in our lives.

But again, remembering the grace we have received is the key to forgiveness.

In choosing to forgive, it is that same grace which causes us to say, “We are unworthy servants; we’ve only done our duty.”

Like the prodigal son, we are unworthy even to be God’s servants. Rather, what we deserve is to be punished for all our sins.

So when we forgive others, we are only doing what we should in light of all God has forgiven us. It is our duty.

And the more we remember the grace we’ve received though we are unworthy of God’s forgiveness, the easier it will be for us to forgive others when they hurt us.

But there’s one more thing in this chapter that points to our need to remember grace.

When the ten lepers were healed, only one came back to thank Jesus. An important part of remembering grace is having a heart filled with gratitude.

How often, though, do we just take God’s grace for granted? Or worse, we actually come to think we deserve it because of “all we’ve done for him?”

Let us cast aside that way of thinking. Rather, let us instead always have an attitude of gratitude, remembering the grace we’ve received and continue to receive every day.

If we do so, not only will we be able to forgive, but mountains will start to move in our lives as we take the steps of faith God has called us to take.

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Deuteronomy Devotionals

Taking God for granted

Deuteronomy

One of the main themes we see in these two chapters is the rebellion of the Israelites, refusing to enter the land God had promised them.

As a result, they wandered around in the wilderness until the generation who had rebelled died.

What really is amazing about it all is their complete lack of trust.

Consider.

God had set the Israelites free from slavery through miracle after miracle.

Every day, God provided them food to eat, literally giving them bread from heaven.

Night and day, they could see the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which represented God’s presence.

And yet they would not trust him. In fact, they utterly rebelled against him.

Sometimes people wonder why God doesn’t make himself more visible to us. If he did, more people would believe in him, right?

But if the history of the Israelites teaches us one thing, it wouldn’t matter.

People still wouldn’t believe. People would still rebel against God.

I still have to ask the question, though.

How could the Israelites fail to trust God after all he had done?

How is it they could rebel against him?

Perhaps the best answer is: they took God for granted.

The pillar of cloud and pillar of fire may have been special at first.

But after a while, they got used to seeing it, not really thinking about what it really meant: that God was with them, leading them, watching over them, and protecting them.

At first the manna was something special. They said in wonder, “What is this?”

But after days of gathering and eating it, the manna too became something much less special. They forgot what it meant: God was miraculously providing their needs.

The result? They lost their gratitude. They lost their wonder of God.

How about you?

Do you take God for granted? Have you lost your gratitude toward God? Have you lost your wonder of God?

At best, losing our gratitude and wonder steals away all our passion toward God.

At worst, it causes us to rebel against him.

When you think about God and all he’s done for you, especially, the cross, do you still have a heart of gratitude and wonder?

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Luke Luke 17

Grateful

Luke

In this passage, we see ten lepers hanging out together when they see Jesus. And if there was one thing that this terrible disease did, it broke down barriers that would have otherwise existed.

Jews and Samaritans, as we’ve noted before, detested each other. But with these men cut off from their own peoples because of their disease, they found there truly were no differences between them.

The same is true with us. In Romans 3:22-23, it says,

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

No matter your religious or cultural background, all of us are the same. We all suffer from the disease of sin, and apart from the touch of Christ, we are cut off from God and will be separated from him forever when we die.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves, much as there was no way, in those days, for a person to save himself from leprosy once they caught it.

All we can do is what those lepers did. Throw ourselves on God’s mercy. These men cried out to Jesus,

Jesus, Master, have pity on us! (Luke 17:13)

And Jesus in his mercy cleansed them. But it required faith.

Jesus didn’t heal them right away. He told them to go show themselves to the priests, and it was as they were on their way to do so, that they suddenly found themselves cleansed.

In the same way, we can only be cleansed of our sins by putting our faith in Jesus.

But then we come to the key point. When the 10 men realized that they were cleansed, all were overjoyed, but it says that when the Samaritan realized he had been healed, he alone returned to Jesus to thank him.

And when Jesus saw this, he asked,

Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? (Luke 17:17-18)

How often does Jesus ask the same concerning us? He gave his life on the cross to cleanse us from our sins. By his grace, we have been saved from eternal death.

Yet how often, do we take our salvation for granted.

I’m not only talking about failing to express thanks in our words, but in our actions.

How often do our actions show how grateful we are to Christ for what he has done for us? Does the grace and love he has poured into our lives, stop there?

Or does it cause us to pour that grace and love into those around us, and in so doing bring glory to God?

Is your life a reflection of your gratitude toward Jesus for all he has done for you?