Gratitude has taken such a beating in our culture of instant gratification. I find that we as a people have fed our spirits the ability to be satisfied on a moment’s desire that our room for being grateful has become smaller and smaller.
Rarely do we find people who have a good depth of gratitude nowadays. From the humble house helper to the clueless startup entrepreneur who asks for mentorship from a seasoned serial entrepreneur – the sense of gratitude has become shallow.
Why is that?
“Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:12 (NLT)
There are so many displays of people in our media (be it social media or traditional media) of people practicing lawlessness that our minds are primed to be on guard against trusting to our best extent, loving to our best extent and being grateful.
Whether we like it or not, we are always expecting the worst out of people, no longer the best.
And we are always ready to repay evil with evil, bad with bad, ungratefulness with ungratefulness and disagreement with disagreement. Our love has definitely grown cold.
The thing is, the depth of our gratitude reflects in our gratefulness to God’s grace and love towards us as well. People with a shallow level of gratitude to other people who blessed and helped them will also have a shallow level of gratitude to Jesus – who gave His life up to save them.
Paradoxically, the only way we can reverse this trend is to continue showing kindness to others (yes even others who have done us wrong or harm) without expecting anything in return.
“And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” – 2 Samuel 9:3
King David was almost murdered by King Saul not just once or twice – but multiple times. He ran for his life like a severely wanted criminal even if he is completely innocent. And yet here we see that he still wants to show the kindness of God to a direct descendant of Saul.
“If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.” – Luke 6:29
This is a very hard teaching by Jesus but see why our God teaches this to us:
“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” – Luke 6:35
God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. If we emulate God in this way, Jesus says that our reward will be great.
The question is: How much do you believe this? How strong is your faith in Jesus and His Words?
As for me, I have experienced numerous kinds of ungratefulness in my business and even in my own house – but I will choose to keep on being kind because I believe in Jesus and His Words.
I hope you will too.
