A New Gratitude

Gratitude is such a pivotal concept in our lives, one that has been repeated so often that we have fundamentally forgotten its meaning.  And we have allowed our conceptions of gratitude to become interwoven with the world’s values.

The way I started this sermon was to write a list of what I was (honestly) thankful for, and I was dismayed.  Overwhelmingly, the list was full of imaginary disasters that could have befallen me, material wealth, and successful circumstances.  It became quite clear as to why I had become such a quick complainer, why my gratitude had no legs – because it was built on such shabby foundations.  I realized that in my life as a Believer so far, I had never really thought there was a difference between Christian gratitude and worldly gratitude…but there definitely is.

The insight that God provided me was that of identity, that a more consistent and permanent sense of thankfulness can overflow when we are aware of who we were before Christ and who we are after Christ.  This conception manages to bypass a lot of the weaker ideas of gratitude that we tend to rely on, and is carried with us everywhere we go, making gratitude in every circumstance a very real possibility.

This is not the only sense of gratitude that we can have, and I am really excited by the fact that we are continuing on in a series about gratitude for a few weeks.  I am hoping that through this, our congregation can learn how to be more thankful, but also, that our thankfulness will be a witness to the rest of the world as well!

And we have even more to be thankful for – praise God for the few brothers and sisters who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior!

P.Peter