Title: Let's Offer a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Description Jesus was passing between Samaria and Galilee one day and met ten lepers. They saw from a distance that there were many people around Jesus and recognized at once that it was the Jesus they had heard of. And with a happy heart, they pleaded with pity for their plight. Jesus told them to go to the priest, but while they followed Jesus' words, they experienced a miracle of healing. Of course, it was healing through the power of Jesus. One of them turned back and thanked Jesus. Then Jesus asked where the other nine were healed in the same way. That Jesus is still asking each of us questions today. "Didn't you all receive God's grace? Why don't you come to God to give thanks and glorify Him?" The Bible tells us to offer sacrifices to God with thanksgiving (Psalm 50:14). Nevertheless, is it not the reality that so few of Christians are truly grateful to God? Why?
First, because they did not learn to be grateful.
Among the children, there is a child who bows down saying thank you even for just one cookie, while another child simply accepts a box of cookies and gets it. It is not that we are good at gratitude because we are innately gifted with the ability to express gratitude, and that we are not thankful because we are not. It is a matter of whether you have learned to be grateful or not.
The best way to learn to be grateful is to do it often, as with any other training. Gratitude is about seizing as many opportunities to be grateful as possible. There are very few things in our lives that are so amazing that we can spontaneously give thanks. So we should be grateful for the little things. In an English-speaking country, in a store, the consumer pays a fair price and tanks while receiving the goods, and the clerk takes the money as the cashier and tanks. When asked to come in, he tanks and when he asks to sit in a chair, he tanks. They do tank cues in greetings such as pretense. The word they use the most all day is probably tank cue. No matter how much we say, "thank you" is a word that doesn't hurt.
Jesus thanked God for five loaves and two fish, even when thousands of people had nothing to eat. Gratitude for small things leads to great blessings.
Second, because our hearts are not filled with the peace of Christ.
Gratitude does not come from external circumstances, but from internal attitudes. There is a story about a grandmother who worries even if it rains and worries even if it doesn't. When it rains, I worry that the second son, who sells sandals, won't sell. If it doesn't rain, I worry about the first son who sells umbrellas. The root cause of this grandmother's lack of gratitude and worry and anguish is that she has a wrong center of gravity. If this grandmother is a carefree person even if the instep of her foot is on fire, wouldn't she always be grateful if it rains and the first son is doing well, and if it doesn't rain, the second son is thankful for the business? When our hearts are filled with the peace that Christ gives us, we can always live in gratitude.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were called as one body, so also be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).
Third, it is because they view the present suffering only negatively.
Suffering right now is painful, but since we are grateful for small things, those who have become grateful for their lives can find reasons to be grateful for suffering.
1) The tension caused by hardship makes life lively. Experiments have shown that animals in an ideal environment get sick and die or lose their vitality before their peers in an unfavorable environment.
2) Through suffering, we come to understand the word of God and hold on to it even more (Psalm 119:71). Through suffering, we return to faith and mature.
3) It gives us an opportunity to experience God's works of goodness (Romans 8:28). Augustine said: "Pain is like looking at an embroidered fabric. Looking at the reverse side of the fabric, many colored threads are intertwined in a disorderly manner. It is bad to see pain as only suffering or absurdity because you only see the reverse side. The threads are beautiful in harmony with form and color. Those who believe in God's providence see a beautiful future beyond disorder."