Am I A Thankful Christian?

by Don Vess

Most of us, because of our encounter with Christ through the Holy Spirit have experienced a heart-change.

Paul refers to this as being in a state of transformation, 2 Cor 5:16-17 NLT- So we stop evaluating others from a human point of view.

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

It all begins in with a “heart-transplant.” Ezekiel 11:19 ESV- And I will give them one
heart, and new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their
flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

This means that our character is changed from the inside out. Our desires and want-
to’s change. Our temperament changes and we begin to experience change in every way in
our lives.

One of the major changes we experience is that we are given a “grateful heart.” We come to
the conclusion, and agree with (this is confession: Homologia: to agree with) and we realize
that we cannot earn our salvation, it is a free gift from God Rom. 6:23 ..the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord) , and we accept
His grace Eph. 2:8-9 For by grace you are saved…, embrace it and become a follower of
Jesus, i.e. A Christian.

Next to Love, Gratitude is, without a doubt the major character attribute of a true
Christian.

Within the word Gratitude is the word attitude. It is a grateful attitude. Paul tells us in
1 Thess. 5:18 KJV- “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.”

In everything: Greek. Enplanti: an all-inclusive term which means “in every circumstance,
including all manner of disappointments, such as not being able to do what we-d like to do or
not being able to buy or attain what we really want, or have our desires or all our needs met
when we think we should. We are to be thankful in EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE.

Paul describes his own situation in Phil. 4:11b-13 - …I have learned to be content
with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have
learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach ore empty or
little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

Paul tells us earlier in His letter to Philippi- Phil 2:14- Do everything without complaining
or arguing. The KJV says, “Do all things without murmuring or complaining.”
Murmuring and complaining is so “out of character” for a true Christian. Paul
gives a a sobering thought in 1 Cor. 10:1-5NLT- I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and
sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that
moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud
and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same
spiritual food (manna), 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from
the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased
with them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Moses had led the children of Israel out Egypt, through the Red Sea and were almost to their destination, the Promised Land. But then something terrible happened.

Numbers 11:1-35 NLT Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the
Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and He sent a
fire to rage among them, and He destroyed some of the people on the outskirts of the camp.
3 Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed the Lord, the fire
stopped. 4  Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the
good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some
meat!” they exclaimed.  5  “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we
had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.  6  But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” 7  The manna looked like small coriander seeds,
and it was pale yellow like gum resin.  8  The people would go out and gather it from the
ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then
they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked
with olive oil.  9  The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.
10  Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and
the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.  11  And Moses said to
the Lord, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What
did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?  12  Did I give birth to them? Did I bring
them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a
nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors?  13  Where
am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us
meat to eat!’  14  I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy!  15  If this is
how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this
misery.”

The desire for meat is typical of the desires for flesh. Our fleshly desires will cause us to
become ungrateful and instead of being thankful for what we “do have,” we begin to desire
“What we do not have.”  This is ingratitude!

18  “…say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You
were whining, and the Lord heard you when you cried, “Oh, for some meat! We were
better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it.  19  And it
won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty.  20  You will eat it for a whole
month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among
you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’” 21  But Moses
responded to the Lord, 31  Now the Lord sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground. [ 32  So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night
and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels! They spread the quail all
around the camp to dry.  33  But while they were gorging themselves on the meat—while it
was still in their mouths—the anger of the Lord blazed against the people, and he struck
them with a severe plague.  34  So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (which means
“graves of gluttony”) because there they buried the people who had craved meat from
Egypt. 35  From Kibroth-hattaavah the Israelites traveled to Hazeroth, where they stayed for
some time.

Ingratitude is an indication that we still have a heart that covets or desires what we do not
have, cannot have, or should not have.
Back to 1 Thess. 5:18- Paul says, “In everything (all things) give thanks- Grk. Eucharisto: a
compound word. Eu: an inner feeling of being overwhelmed with gratification, and Charis:
Greek word for grace.

Together the words from a “commandment to have a thankful, graceful
attitude, and to keep it up.

It is the opposite of complaining, moaning and grumbling. Paul goes on to say, “IT IS THE
WILL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS CONCERNING YOU!

PRAYER: Father, give me a grateful and thankful heart. Help me to NEVER complain or
grumble against You and to always remember Your kindness toward me.