Is Your Grace Growing Gratitude?

Christians should be the most grateful people on the face of the earth. Why should they be the most thankful, you ask? They should be because gratitude is the proper response to receiving grace. Gratitude and grace come from the same Latin root, gratis. Gratitude is the response to getting something gratis, by grace. Christians have been given an endless supply of grace through Jesus Christ, and therefore should be the most thankful people on earth.

Why then, is it that it is so easy for us to remember the bad and forget to be thankful for the good that comes our way? Why is it that we are so quick to complain in frustration and anger when difficulty comes, and so slow to humbly come before God and say, “My life is Yours, I lay myself at Your Holy and righteous feet?” One reason is that we are not often conscious of how badly we need the grace of forgiveness.

One of the reasons that David was called “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), was because he knew the state of his own heart. The brightness of our gratitude is directly proportional to our owning the deep darkness within our souls. The more we see how low we were without Christ, the more we will gladly thank Him for the heights which forgiveness brings us.

Without the grace of God in Christ there is no way to peace with God, no entering heaven, no hope for anything but God’s fair and just judgment against us. When you own that fact, that as Charles Spurgeon said, “When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it to magnify his free, unpurchased, un-sought grace,” your heart will not be able to dam up the river of gratitude that flows out from your soul.

Grace grows gratitude. The more we become aware of God’s grace, the more we will see that we need to be thankful for. My friend and co-author of Forgiveness Is Tremendous, Charlie Jones, used to say, “The first sign of greatness is thankfulness. The first sign of smallness is thanklessness.” He also said that we need to be learning to be thankful just for the opportunity to be thankful. If we are not thankful for the small things, we will not be thankful for big things.

Christian, are you thankful? Are you aware of how much grace God has showered into your life? Do you understand how desperate your case was that the cost to redeem you was the life of the Son of God? There is no higher price that God could pay. Yet He paid it and paid it willingly, freely, joyfully!

Maybe you have not yet experienced firsthand the grace that I am talking about. Maybe you have been thinking that life is all about the things, accomplishments, and good times. I think that is what the world is saying we should believe.

But maybe like the prodigal son you are looking around at your life and you realize that it isn’t at all about the gifts. It’s about the Giver. Without that grace, grace for forgiveness, grace for provision, grace for deliverance, grace for assurance, there is little to truly be grateful for.

Take hold of that grace now. Own the condition of your heart and your need for forgiveness. Own up to the fact that you are not in a position to provide all of your own needs let alone the needs of your family. Trade your worry and anxiety for assurance that God will always love you, provide for you, and deliver you. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1). Don’t wait another day, don’t wait another minute. God is offering grace for you right now. Take it. Experience the grace that grows gratitude.