Gratitude – Paul Nordman

The Source of Gratitude

Luke, the gospel historian and Gentile physician, records a heartening account of ten skin-diseased men calling out for healing, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”¹ Jesus ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests in keeping with the Law of Moses, and on their way, all ten were made well. Yet only one of them “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”² Jesus blessed the man, a Samaritan, yet voiced the obvious: “Where are the other nine?”³ It is an unsettling question, for we find ourselves asking, “How would I have responded?” Would we have returned in true thankfulness with the one, or gone along in mere happiness with the nine? Personally, I can envision either.

God knows the frailty of human character. His Law came with a warning, “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.”⁴ Note the relational regression from satisfaction to pride to forgetfulness. This is exactly the path God’s people chose over time, as He voiced through Hosea centuries later: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”⁵ Exactly as God had foretold.

Yet Paul exhorts us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,”⁶ Then if thankfulness is so often so elusive, how do we live in it? Paul writes, “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”⁷ Then this from the next chapter: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”⁸ So perhaps thankfulness begins with that for which we are both most grateful and least able to boast: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”⁹ Thanks be to God, the source and object of our gratitude.

“Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” Hebrews 12:28 NIV

Father, You are so good in who You are and who You have made us to be — Your own. May our redeemed lives echo our thanks and praise now and throughout eternity. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Luke 17:13 NIV
² Luke 17:15-16 NIV
³ Luke 17:17 NIV
⁴ Deuteronomy 8:11-14 NIV
⁵ Hosea 13:6 NIV
⁶ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV
⁷ Colossians 2:6-7 NIV
⁸ Colossians 3:16 NIV
⁹ Colossians 1:25 NIV

At the Heart of Thanksgiving

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. —1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

He was isolated from the healthy population—his leprosy had sentenced him there—and to some degree, a social outcast, a Samaritan living somewhere along the border between Samaria and Galilee. So, as Jesus entered his village, none of the locals, and least of all this man, could have predicted his imminent moment of fame, forever after scrivened into the annuls of Scripture. What was his heroic feat? Simply this: he said, “Thank you.” Though Jesus healed ten lepers that day, only he, anonymous to us for now, returned to his Healer, teeming with gratitude. “He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.”¹

Sometimes we confuse excitement with gratitude, but they are not the same. We can gush over a gift received, for instance, yet undervalue the heart of the one who lovingly gave it. Such was the case with the nine other lepers healed that day, as Jesus noted, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”² Therein lies the crux of the matter: thankfulness honors the heart of giver; it appreciates the person behind the gift. So, in this season of Thanksgiving, take time to consider and laud the heart of God in all circumstances.

Thank Him for His limitless love and faithfulness. “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”³

Thank Him for His attentive mercy and protection. “Blessed be the Lord! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”⁴

Thank Him in good times. “Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.”⁵

Thank Him even in a fallen world. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”⁶

Father, You are good to me. Attune my heart in gratitude to You. Hear me now, and receive my thanks . . . In Christ I pray. Amen.

¹ Luke 17:16
² Luke 17:17-18
³ Psalm 108:3-4
⁴ Psalm 18:6-7
⁵ Psalm 111:1-2
⁶ Habakkuk 3:17-18 NIV