I’ve always argued that the commandments of God are not given to us in order to keep us from the enjoyable things in life. On the contrary, they are given to us so we’ll live the best possible lives in this fallen world. God always has our best interests foremost in mind when he allows suffering and when he commands obedience. He’s not, like some think, the kind of God who wants to keep good things from us. Eve fell for that Satan’s ploy! He only wants our best in every situation and circumstance. The scriptures make ingratitude a sin, and it commands us to be thankful. He commands us to be thankful because that’s the best thing for us.
David Jeremiah tells this story: A man on the verge of a nervous breakdown was counseled to practice the therapy of thanksgiving. He was told to make a list of all the people who had ever helped him in his life. Then he was to sit down and write a letter of thanks to a person who had especially blessed his life in the past. This man thought through his life and remembered a school teacher he’d had when he was growing up. She was a very old lady now. He wrote her a letter expressing his appreciation for all she’d meant to his life during his days of schooling. Several days went by and he got a letter back from her. She wrote, “Dear Willie, as I recall all the children I have taught over the years, you are the only one who ever took time to write and thank me for what I did as a teacher. You’ve made me so happy. I’ve read your letter through tears. I keep it by my bedside and read it every night. I shall cherish it until the day I die.” This man was so thrilled by the reply that he wrote more letters. At last he’d written 500 letters to the people he felt grateful to. Do you know what happened? The man got better.
Louis Smedes, in his reflection after a near-death experience, wrote: I found myself soaring beyond my physical self. High. Suspended in weightless lightness, as if my earthly existence required no solid ground but was suspended in space, buoyed only by love. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. In that moment, I discovered that gratitude is the most profound emotion I would ever experience in my life. It was the ultimate joy of living. It surpassed the thrill of winning the lottery. It was richer and more profound than any other emotion. It is, perhaps, the source of all other truly positive emotions in the human experience. I am certain that nothing in life can ever match the sensation of being fully, completely, and utterly grateful.
“Give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Colossians 1:12