The Lord is good. Is he not?
So often we forget who we are. A child of God (if we made the choice to accept the Holy Spirit into our hearts, of course – John 1:12).
So as children of God, we basically forget who our dad is regularly. How on earth is that possible!? Well, the cop-out answer, in my opinion, is “Because the fall”. Sure, we are fallen people, but we remember who our earthly father is. Less than that we remember simple things, like our cats favorite spot to be scratched, or that we need our keys to get into our cars.
But when times get tough, instead of remembering how awesome the creator of the universe is and all the times he has helped us in the past, we rely on ourselves for short-term quick fixes to solve our problems.
I have an opinion about this. If you couldn’t already tell. But if you are anything like me, and/or react in the above manner, then I think I understand why. Maybe not totally, but enough.
The things or people we show appreciation to the most, are the people or things we are quick to return to again. Weird. But that’s how it works. When we tell someone how thankful we are for them, not only is it encouraging to them, but something happens deep down inside of us. Its as if spreading thankfulness gives us a sense of trust.
When it comes to simple things, like books or video games, you can only appreciate them for so long. They will never react with a sense of peace from the thankfulness or dedication you show them. People do however return that peace. Or maybe they return some amount of thankfulness.
I believe the more thankful we are for what God has done, the quicker we will be to turn to him in our times of need. He has come through so far, and he will continue to. Even if we are jackasses. (this approach works with people too)
Humans are weird, but God is even weirder. He knows exactly what we will do wrong, and how many times we will stab him in the back or forget about him. Does he hold it against us? Not at all. Now that is weird. The best friend we can ever have, and we cant help but forget about him.
Anything that went wrong in the bible, especially when someone was being called on by God to act, went wrong because that person stopped trusting God and started trusting self. Every single time the Lord turned right around and said, “its okay, just do what I said now instead of continuing to mess around."
What a love that is. A love we will never be able to fully show each other – that is because the fall. But it is a love we can try and mimic. The thankfulness we can potentially have is amazing and a joy to share.
Are you thankful?
Do you serve God? Do you serve your friends?