11/19/2022 Growing in Gratitude

Growing in Gratitude

Let me begin with a simple premise someone stated… “What consumes your mind….controls your life. Practice gratitude.”

Gratitude is about connection. The connection between every good in life… and your personal life.

If someone walked up to you this afternoon and handed you one million dollars… just a gift to bless you… most of us can imagine we would be filled with gratitude… wow… I can’t believe how blessed I am. It is life giving…and I am not the source.

We’d like to think we would not only be grateful…but become grateful in a lasting way.

Yet the power of realizing life’s blessings can become quenched by familiarity, fear and comparison. The connection can be cut off.

The point is that gratitude is an attitude that can connect us to the blessings and elevate our fortitude

Gratitude is that realization…it connects what is good to being experienced as good.

Today… let’s open up the relationship between gratitude and generosity.

Gratitude and generosity… I want to acknowledge my gratefulness for the generosity of so many.

I want to express how grateful I am for the commitment and contribution of so many… be a living body of Christ today

Today I want us to hear what lies in the heart of giving…and particularly the significant relationship between gratitude and generosity.

These are two qualities that we sense are life giving… lift us… we feel more alive…more like we should be. [1] But while we want to be grateful and generous… we often correlate each of those more to something we SHOULD do. We want to be generous… but the call to give elicits more a sense of obligation that opportunity… duty more than desire.

God wants us to understand… gratitude and generosity are actually about discovering the reality of how blessed we are. Listen to how the apostle Paul speaks of giving in the Bible…

2 Corinthians 9: 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” l

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God

In these words lies the heart of God for you and I regarding giving… a call to grasp that it is good… beyond mere obligation to that of opportunity …beyond mere duty to that of desire.

I think God is happy when we are functioning in reality…more truly who we are. That can’t be forced. [2]

1. Gratitude reveals our true position

Gratitude by it’s nature is the realization that we have received from a source beyond ourselves. If we are grateful… it means we received it…you are not the source. So the very nature of gratitude defines our position.

The earth and all it contains belong to God:

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Psalms 24:1

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

All our abilities, opportunities, and possessions come from Him

This is what the understanding of “stewardship” comes from. A steward is someone who manages or administers the property or affairs of someone else as an agent. The message of the Old and New Testaments is that human beings act as stewards of God for creation.

There is a tendency in this world to believe that we inherently are owed something…that we are entitled.

A Study I read found just 18% are familiar with Giving Tuesday while almost all (93%) are familiar with Black Friday.

Those living just 100 years ago actually embraced their call to “count your blessings.”

We may be struggling to maintain gratitude…and therefore giving…because we are disconnected from living in relationship to the source of all we have.

In a secular world... the sense of “ours” become more defining than the God who Is, was and will always be

I have come to believe that there is one core issue beneath all others when it comes to money…and that is knowing whose it is.

How did Jesus describe faithfulness to God? Most often with a story that told of an owner entrusting their vineyard or the goods to someone who would be held accountable when they returned.

From my experience…we either live as those who are ultimately managers, or we consider ourselves to be the absolute owners

“A true relationship with God understands that achievement is not measured by how much one makes or how much one has…but by how well all that we are is used in a way that honors the owner… God.”

We might recall when a young man of wealth came to Jesus… recognizing he represented God like no other…and asking what mattered most …and that led to discussing loving God and loving one’s neighbor…and finally Jesus encouraging him to go sell his stuff and give to others… at which point we hear of Jesus’ sadness as the man slowly walked away. Jesus saw a child of God who was not free. They may have thought that they were more secure because of their wealth….but they were bound by that very grip it had on them.

2. Gratitude reveals our true provisions:

Jesus tells us…

Matt. 6: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

He calls us to realize the foolishness of collecting more stuff that won’t last… in contrast to providing for what will last forever. Eternal living

When we focus on what bears eternal value we will be drawn deeper into our eternal existence. Deeper into Eternal value draws us deeper into Eternal existence

Who is most deeply secure…the one who treasures what has no lasting value…or the one whose heart is already at home in eternal reality?

For those who have ever explored managing financial investments… there is one principle that is emphasized at the core…diversity… the need to have investments in different spheres so that they are protected from a downfall in any one of them. Jesus simply expands that… noting that we have far too small a perspective. Think Eternally

3. Gratitude reveals our power

Gratitude realizes that we have the God given power to make an eternal difference. Generosity enjoys exercising that power.

Those who become more grateful become more generous…and the generosity allows them to sense greater purpose in life.

I have regretted plenty of things in my life…including some purchases… even a couple investment…BUT never giving. Never.

"We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count." Neal A. Maxwell

Closing…

We all want to be grateful…and generous. We each have different levels of natural dispositions depending on some of the influences in our formative years. Generally we want gratitude and generosity life-giving… BUT… we underestimate the forces which are at work to quench them. Fear…insecurity… comparison…greed… consumerism. I want to sugest that it may start with breaking free of correlating gratitude and generosity with with simply being a duty that we “should” be…and realizing that these qualities actually reflect reality…and awakening to our true position and provisions…and power.

So let’s pray for freedom from mere duty…and seek the reality that brings desire.