The Choice Is Ours

Ever since I put my faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone for my eternal salvation, I’ve hated sin.  100%.  I wish I could say I’ve also avoided  it 100% but of course that would be a lie worthy of the devil himself.  But even the most black-and-white, zero-grey-areas person I’ve ever heard of, the Apostle John, acknowledges in 1 John 2:1 that such is altogether unavoidable on this side of heaven, but that it will become less and less prevalent, less and less present in the life of every true believer, as also stated so succinctly yet crystal-clearly in Proverbs 4:18.  Ergo, I don’t dwell on past sins but rather on the present pursuit of righteousness.  But while I may not be able to avoid sin altogether in this life, I find that I have grown to hate it more with each passing year and exponentially so after starting this journey of Bible memory on a regular, systematic basis.

And under the umbrella of sin in general, there are three which I’d say I’ve come to hate even more than the others:  one is a lack of truth… in ANY way, shape or form; another is waste… of time, of talent, of opportunity, of money or food; and the third chart-topper would probably be unthankfulness.  A lack of gratitude.

Today, as I write this, I am once again reminded (and amazed, stunned) at just how good, at just how effective  the Lord is in being able to make  us thankful.

You see, the other day I noticed that the water from my faucet tasted strange even though I always use a filter.  First time that’s ever happened but I figured “no bigee, I’ll just drink bottled water until they fix it” which was hunky dory – until I ran out after three days (I drink a lot  of water each day =).  And the thought hit me:  what if it DOESN’T get fixed, what if it’s just the “new normal”, water that tastes so bad that even a filter doesn’t dent the distaste?  As you know, I’ve committed my entire life savings to this project and website so can’t afford to just start buying  water on a regular basis.  Nope, I’m stuck with a faucet and filter for fulfilling that human need.  I’m sure this probably seems like such a small matter to most people but it’s pretty big to me.  It’s not as though I can just go without drinking water.  Something’s gotta give!

Then just this morning I figured I’d give it another try and much to my mouth’s relief, the filtered faucet water tasted good again… hallelu!  Matter resolved.  And I’ve been thanking Him for that all day.

And this little episode of my life has been a great reminder of a spiritual truth:  if we don’t thank God regularly, He has an uncanny way of MAKING us thankful, of bringing that about!

I mean, I thank Him a lot… but I can’t remember the last time I thanked Him for drinkable water.  Yet now, after these past few days, I literally can’t thank Him enough.

Interestingly, I thank Him regularly for salvation and spiritual growth and for literally writing His Word on my heart and soul and mind – and all of that has continued apace.  And I thank Him regularly for the stellar, literally perfect physical health He’s granted my entire life (a result of God’s grace but also, under that umbrella, of regular Bible memory no doubt) and that too just keeps right on going (so far! =).  And it makes me wonder if, in addition to overarching grace and regular Bible memory and recitation, this is also due to the fact that I do indeed thank  Him for these things regularly.

I find that my reaction to the Bible is extremely positive, pure joy, 99.9% of the time.  But I’ve come across a handful of passages that make my blood boil.  Pure anger.  Like when those merchants were selling their wares in the temple as described in John 2:13-17.  (I’m greatly comforted by the fact that the Lord had the exact same reaction… talk about good company!)  And there are a handful of passages which have not only angered but befuddled me, as in “What on earth  was that guy thinking?!  Who would ever  behave like that?”

And one passage in particular:  Luke 17:11-19.  It’s a well-known story.  Jesus, on His way to Jerusalem, entered a certain village and came across ten lepers.  They “raised their voices” and begged for mercy, for healing, and our compassionate and merciful Lord (James 5:11) did just that!  These ten lepers – the outcasts whom even the outcasts  shunned – just had that major, major, major life-revolutionizing matter taken off of their shoulders, yet ONLY ONE of them THANKED Jesus.

As much as I might try, I simply cannot, I’m simply unable to fathom that, to even imagine  that.  Just thinking  about that makes me angry.  Then it’s as though I can hear Nathan himself saying, “Thou art the man.”  Straight out of 2 Samuel 12:7.  You see, not only can I fathom and imagine that kind of cringe-worthy conduct, that brand of baneful behavior, there are times I find that I’ve been indulging  in it unawares.

Ingratitude.  Ungratefulness.  Unthankfulness.  Yet it’s absolutely amazing how the Lord never lets me do so for very long before “stepping in” and “working” events which will snap me out of that big-time.

I can’t even remember the last time I had thanked Him for drinkable water.  And now I’ve probably done so a hundred  times today.  Funny how that works, eh?

So let’s focus, from this day forward, on active gratitude.  On thanking Him for things big and small.  Constantly.  Not just because it’s right and biblical…

  • “in everything GIVE THANKS” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
  • “always GIVING THANKS for all things” (Ephesians 5:20)
  • “in everything by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING” (Philippians 4:6)
  • “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, GIVING THANKS” (Colossians 3:17)

… but below that blessed umbrella, even on a human level, also because of what it very likely may spare us in the future.  In other words, I find that gratefulness is very similar to humility in that we can either humble ourselves  or BE humbled by God (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; James 4:10Philippians 2:10).  So also, we can either THANK the Lord regularly, or He’ll undoubtedly GIVE US a reason to do so after going through a trial or some sort of tribulation.  How many times have we suffered in life simply because we weren’t thankful.

Let’s call it preventive gratitude.  May we be wise to adopt a focus and attitude of gratitude, every day.  May we be like that one former leper, not the other nine.  It will no doubt spare us from needless heartache in the future.  The choice is ours.
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