Avoiding the Abyss of Ungratefulness
My wife Tiffany is inching closer to the due date of our fourth child and, because of some concerns for premature labor, has been on bed rest for the last week. Trust me, it has seemed longer. I’ve learned more about gratefulness, and more precisely about my ungratefulness, over this last week than I’ve learned in the last year. Now, I know that she does a lot around the house and that she does a lot with the kids but I think that I had forgotten exactly HOW MUCH she does around the house and HOW MUCH she does with the kids and was therefore lacking in appropriate amounts of gratefulness for her.
If we’re not careful, our Christian lives can meander down this road too. When we fail to recall exactly how good God has been to us we can begin to show signs of taking a stroll toward the abyss of ungratefulness, perhaps even questioning God’s goodness. Psalm 106 helps us on how to avoid this. It begins:
Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Why should we give thanks to the Lord with hearts overflowing with unabashed gratefulness? It’s because God is good and has been, and is, and will be steadfast in His enduring love for us. We ought to remember! Remember who we were before He broke into our lives. Remember His grace that says, “I know who you are and what you’ve done, but you are righteous in my eyes and your sin is removed from my presence because I crushed my Son for you.” Remember that in His love we are called children, not enemies. Remember that because of Him our hopeless and pathetic lives are full of hope and joy.
Do you ever find yourself more aware of what God hasn’t done for you than what God has done for you? Are you ever lacking in affection for the Lord with no desire to praise Him? Perhaps you’re not taking the time to remember how good He has been to you.
The danger of forgetfulness is that if we aren’t careful, we will quickly find ourselves failing to recall God’s persistent love and grace, gradually slipping into the abyss of ungratefulness. Rather, let us continually seek to “give thanks for the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”