Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
As I have grown and matured in the American society, I have seen how increasingly difficult it has become for the majority of people to be grateful. I have seen the transformation from me excitedly opening Christmas presents and loving everything I got, to seeing my little brothers grumble and complain when they get less than everything they see on TV. They literally are not grateful for what they got, and instead, let their lust for more ruins their experience.
And how can we blame them?
We live in a society in which greed is espoused as a virtue, and is spoon feed to children from the earliest ages. Of course it is NOT limited to just children. I have seen people who have more than plenty in their life, yet are very miserable because they don't have more. I, too, have fallen in this trap. I see a man with a better job than mine, a house, a nice car, a beautiful wife, and so on, and I grow very discontent with my own life. I am sure we've all been there at some point.
Yet, this is quite different than what we SHOULD do. As a believer I am fully aware that all my blessings are from God above. Everything I have is a *gift* to me. And many times, these gifts are simply just for me, but they are also meant to bless others as well. For instance, I am gifted with a car, but I can also bless others by giving them a ride some place. So what does it say to God when I say "I don't want THIS gift, I want that gift over there. It is so much better than what you have given me!" ? I think it show God that I am not deserving of either gift. If I cannot appreciate what God has given me now, why would He think that giving me a newer gift would suddenly change me?
We should be certain that we most certainly have wonderful gifts from God above. The greatest of these is grace. Grace is the gift that can never be taken away, only rejected by us. Grace allows us to be in right standing with God. And with right standing we are given all the treasures of Heaven! We are co-heirs with Christ, after all; a royal people! So, we ought to be a people who are on our knees praising God for this great gift, for none of us are deserving of anything, lest it be death. And if we deserve nothing, and are given the treasures of heaven, why do we grumble about not having the next fad? Why do we act as ungrateful children on Christmas morning?
My prayers for you, brothers and sisters, as well as myself, is that we will never cease to praise God for his great gifts in our lives, whether it is the gift of redemption, the gift of a junker car, the gift of a hand me down, or whatever it may be.
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