The United States
Our country is richly blessed. There are so many wonderful resources we have access to and so many opportunities, sometimes we forget to be thankful for them. Transportation is a huge blessing in our country. Not only can we afford gas, we can afford cars to drive and busses to ride, trains to take and planes to catch. Our country is not only blessed via location, we are blessed spiritually, and generationally. The generations that are living now in the United States have been blessed with so many technological advances for everyone who lives here. For instance, we have quick and easy access to sanitation and clean water. Our country has such a surplus of food that obesity has become one of our top causes of disease.
I don’t mean to brow beat you with reasons why we should be grateful. Anyone that doesn’t see how blessed we are is either choosing to be ignorant or in a real state of poverty. Even the poor here have access to resources that the poor in other countries don’t have — like free public education, libraries, homeless shelters, food banks, social security, disability income, unemployment income, etc.
Ingratitude
I was watching a TV show about a nanny that goes into people’s homes and teaches them how to discipline and raise healthy children — Supernanny. I am appalled at how ungrateful kids can be to their parents. I was raised in a good home and my parents always taught us to not only be polite but to be grateful. We thanked God at every dinner, we thanked our parents when they did things for us, and we gave back by doing our chores and helping around the house. As I said earlier in this posting, gratitude is a value that must be instilled. If kids are given everything they want and they don’t have to work for it they don’t appreciate the hard work that goes into earning a living and therefore, they are ungrateful toward their parents and ultimately, God.
Why We Should Thank God
God appreciates gratitude because there are so many unseen blessings that He gives us. Imagine being a parent that never received thanks from your child. Or maybe it would be easier to imagine yourself as being a child who never received thanks from your parent. Whichever the case it is easy to see how being a blessing to someone could become drudgery when you are never appreciated. God desires to bless His children. The bible tells us not to complain. This is because complaining is the antithesis of praising. God is to be praised, period. God deserves our gratitude. He not only desires verbal gratitude but we should be so grateful that we overflow with kind things to do for the kingdom and for the sake of the Name of Jesus.
The Parable of the Talents — Jesus’ Words on Gratitude
In the parable of the talents, Jesus demonstrates the principle of gratitude. The man with one talent buries his talent in the ground (a talent was the approximate equivalent of $1000 dollars today) and then said to God that basically, he knew God doesn’t deliver on His promises (he’s a hard man) and that he should hoard what God has given him because he thinks God is a miser. This is all illustrated with a boss and an employee scenario. We are the workers; God is the boss.
Here is the parable of the talents from Matthew chapter twenty-five so that you can get an idea as to what Jesus was referring to:
14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ’Master,’ he said, ’you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21"His master replied, ’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22"The man with the two talents also came. ’Master,’ he said, ’you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23"His master replied, ’Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. ’Master,’ he said, ’I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26"His master replied, ’You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28" ’Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
So we see that the faith and gratitude of the other servants (who had more than one talent) were pleasing to God. He increased their wealth and their eternal reward because they displayed that they trusted God by investing in Him and that they wanted to serve Him by increasing His money. Talents can be symbolic of a couple of things. A talent given by God can be money or it can represent gifts or abilities. Investing this talent is like investing in God’s kingdom or using your wealth (whether gifts or money) to help bring others to God. Burying your wealth on the other hand is like hoarding it because you don’t think God is generous or able to help you increase His kingdom. A talent can also be considered like faith. If we invest our faith in God we will be given more. If we don’t exercise our faith, what little we have will be taken away.
In general, God wants us to be grateful. If you can think of ten things to be grateful for before you pray and then thank God for those things, you will be surprised at how happy you can make God. Also, by praising God you encourage His servants, the angels. You strengthen His kingdom and power by your faith. God will always be almighty but faith in Him brings Him more glory. God is deserving of our faith, all glory and praise.
I hope today you will be encouraged to thank God for the blessings He’s given you and praise Him with every breath you take — for every breath is a gift from God.
