What does the Bible say about thankfulness and gratitude? - GotQuestions.org Podcast Episode 51

This is the Got Questions Podcast, Your Questions, Biblical Answers. And first, I just wanna give everyone a happy Thanksgiving greeting, because this episode is gonna be airing close to Thanksgiving this year.

Why Christians Struggle with Thankfulness

But thankfulness, gratitude, it's something the Bible talks about a lot. So on today's episode, I've got Jeff and Kevin, our regular, and we're just gonna hopefully communicate what the Bible says about being thankful, why we should be thankful, what are some of the hangups that prevent people from being thankful.

Also just share some things that we're thankful about. So, Kevin, what would you say are the biggest hindrances? Why are so many people not thankful?

Oh, I think for one thing, they get their eyes off of God, and they start looking at their circumstances, that becomes a focus, they start looking at themselves, and maybe their own failures, their own failings, their own sin, and they fail to be thankful for what God has done.

Grumbling and complaining, these kind of things are very common, and it's like second nature for so many people just to fall into the trap of grumbling about things, complaining about things, and gratitude or giving of thanks is a good antidote for that.

Gratitude also combats negative thinking and pessimism, where you're always just taking the downside of things, and I think another real hindrance to thanksgiving is pride, really. When we start getting our eyes off of God and onto ourselves, it has to do with pride many times, and gratitude can be an antidote to pride as well.

As we start looking at what God has done and remembering His benefits, in fact, that's what Psalm 103 says, bless the Lord, O my soul, that is, praise Him, everything that is within me, all that was within me, bless His name, and then verse two of Psalm 103 says, forget not all His benefits, and I think any time that Scripture tells us not to forget something, it's because we have a predisposition to forget that thing, and so when God says, don't forget all of my benefits, all of my blessings to you, implied in that command is the idea that we do tend to forget what God has done, and so we have a wonderful reminder in Psalm 103, any of you go through and read the whole Psalm, it's just filled with reasons to praise the Lord.

Excellent, Kevin, so when I think of thankfulness, the verse that comes to mind is always in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, which says, be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus, and it's that give thanks in all circumstances that really gets some people, I know we discussed this briefly, so Jeff, why don't you touch on this a little bit, what does it mean to give thanks in all circumstances, and perhaps more importantly, what doesn't it mean?

Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

One of the things that people definitely struggle with is the assumption that the Bible's telling people that no matter what happens to you, you're supposed to be happy about and thankful for that particular thing, and that's not what scripture says, it doesn't say that you're supposed to be thankful for everything that happens to you, it says that we're supposed to be thankful in all the circumstances that we're in, Apostle Paul's a very good example of that, he experienced some pretty rough things, a lot of persecution, a lot of physical struggles, and he didn't talk about those things as being an enjoyable experience, he didn't like getting beaten up, he didn't like being in prison, but he was able to maintain his joy and his gratitude and his thankfulness in the midst of those things, and to what Kevin was talking about, a lot of that comes down to the idea of perspective, perspective has a huge impact on whether or not we feel a sense of gratitude, we feel ingratitude when we believe that we're not getting something that we're supposed to get, or something that we deserve, something that we're owed, that's a major issue that people have when it comes to things like ingratitude and unthankfulness, and there again is, we have to separate the difference between is what I'm experiencing good in and of itself, or do I just have reasons to be happy and thankful for it, and one of the things that I look at very often is I look at the state of most people in the modern world, over the last 200 years especially, but especially even more recently than that, the world in general has seen things like disease and hunger just plummet, there's a lot of us who live in countries where we are generally free and stable and we don't have to worry about very many things very often, and at the same time there's a lot of people in these cultures who feel angry, they don't feel grateful, they don't feel happy because their perception is that they're being cheated out of something, they're not getting something that they're owed, they're not getting something that they deserve, and it's not that that's never the case, that people are never being denied something that's legitimately owed to them, but I also know that there's times where if I look at something in my home and think, that's not maybe as nice as it could be, I also remind myself that King David never had running water and air conditioning, so there are things to be grateful for and that we can understand even if the specific circumstances are not perfect, and that is also the reason why it's important for us to remember that ingratitude reflects a spiritual problem, there's places in the Bible where it talks about ingratitude as being reflective of somebody who does not have spiritual understanding, and again, it's not about saying that we're supposed to look at every circumstance in life and say, this is wonderful and I like this, it's okay for us to say, I don't like this and I don't want to experience this, but even then, one of the things that we can have gratitude for is the fact that we have somebody to bring those concerns and those problems to in a universe without any kind of a God at all, then if things are hard and you don't like them, then things are hard and you're not gonna like them and they're never gonna actually get any better, nor are they ever gonna be resolved.

From a Christian perspective, at the very least, we can look at our difficult circumstances and know that they're temporary and we can look at the hard things that we go through and say there is some purpose, some intention behind this, and again, that's not to minimize anything that we go through, but there is a huge difference in the believer's perspective on what it means to go through things than it is for other people.

And then thankfulness provides that ability to say, okay, I can endure the things I don't like and I can be glad for the things that I have that I don't necessarily have to have. In other words, the world doesn't have to provide me with certain things and when I have more than I'm absolutely required to get, I can be grateful and thankful for those things.

I can look at the things that God's given me that he doesn't have to give me and say I'm thankful for those things.

Yeah, from what both of you have shared, the thing that pops into my mind are the trips we've been on with Compassion International. And part of those trips, we go to a developing country, we get to do home visits where we visit both some of the children from the Compassion Center and they're sometimes parents, sometimes one parent in their home.

And every time we visit someone's home, it's amazing to see how grateful they are for what they have when in some of these times, their entire home where mom, dad, five kids is smaller than my master bedroom.

And every time we come home from one of these trips, it's been such a powerful reminder to be grateful for what we have because God has tremendously blessed us, not even as Americans, but in many parts of the world, we have so much, far more than any other people in the history of the world have had and yet that doesn't produce gratefulness, it produces kind of what you were talking about, Jeff, sort of a spirit of entitlement.

We think that we deserve all these things and when any one of them is taken away or goes wrong or whatever, gratitude instantly turns into bitterness or complaining or whining or grumbling or whatever.

And we come back from one of these compassion trips and I'm really, really grateful for what I have for a little while. And then of course, the high of the trip fades and I find myself grumbling and complaining and God has to remind me again.

Do you remember that family you visited when they have electricity for like three hours a day and yet they're so thankful, they're so happy about how God has blessed them so much? To me, that's a powerful reminder.

And I know the logistics of this is impossible, but I think if every, this is focused on Americans, but that's who we are, if every American at some point, hopefully, I don't know, mid to late teens was required to visit a third world or a developing country and see how a majority of the rest of the world lives, I think that would go a long way to reducing the entitlement culture and causing people to be more grateful because like, wow, here in the United States, we have so much, we have so many things.

We have so much to be grateful for.

And those things, those perspectives make a huge difference. It strikes people as strange when they hear that somebody who's living in a, and I've been to some of those places with you. I've seen some of those locations and it's not an exaggeration to say that there are people in the world who live in what Americans would consider essentially a homeless condition, that they're living in shacks, in sheds, in huts, in dirt mounds and so on and so forth.

And yet those people experience a sense of gratitude and one of the reasons is because they are surrounded by people who in some circumstances are actually even significantly worse off or they've seen how much assistance and help that they're able to get from people.

And one of the things we struggle with sometimes, not just materially, but spiritually here in the West is that lack of perspective. We don't typically see persons who are in those conditions. We don't typically see people who are really truly struggling with where are they going to get food or where are they going to sleep?

And it's not that no Western country has persons who have concerns about those things, but by proportion, they're much smaller, much less visible, much less severe than we see in other countries. And that's where that sense of entitlement starts to creep in there, where we start to look around and we're looking at other people and saying, wow, I can see a lot of people who I think in my perspective are better off.

Than me.

They have more things, they have nicer things, they have better access to things. And then that makes us feel this sense of bitterness and this sense of entitlement. When in reality, if we were to take a step back and go, you know what, let me just look at what I have compared to what I could have or what I'm owed, so to speak, that would really change our perspective on those things.

And again, just to continue to hammer the point, that's not to say that we're supposed to look at our lives and never try to improve them, or that we're never supposed to look at something in our circumstances and say, this is not good.

But most of the things that we experience in our lives as Christians, we should be able to have a perspective of understanding that it could be worse. And nobody ever likes to hear that when something bad is going on and somebody wants to chime in with the, well, it could be worse.

That doesn't make anybody feel better. That's never actually helped anybody feel any better about their circumstances to be told, well, it could be worse. And yet, when we have the ability to understand that and recognize it, it does make a difference in our perception and the way we feel.

I brought up the idea of people like King David. Was King David happy or Solomon? We read in the Bible about all the things that Solomon had. Was Solomon pleased with the life and the lifestyle that he led?

Clearly he was. From his perspective, he had it fantastic. And yet from our perspective, he didn't have things like running water and heat and electricity and air conditioning and social media and any of these sorts of things.

But in his perspective, he had things fantastic. So that kind of perspective really does help. It matters to think about where we could be and how things could be in our lives as compared to what they are and what they're really like.

So Jeff, what in your experience are some other reasons? So we've talked about a lot already why some people aren't thankful, aren't grateful for what they have. And what are some other scriptures that you can point people to to help them to understand why we should be grateful for what we do have?

Some of the things that I do see, I had mentioned a little bit before, there are some scriptures that tie in gratitude to spiritual problems, to spiritual issues. One of those is Romans chapter one that mentions alongside of other sins and problems, it brings up the idea of ingratitude and unthankfulness as being one of these signs that accompany people who have just rejected God, which makes sense.

If you actually don't believe in God, then it would make sense that you would feel sometimes a sense of entitlement and ingratitude or angst towards the way the world is. It's philosophically backwards, but I can understand why people get there.

Second Timothy three, two talks about ingratitude as being one of the signs of the end, that there's going to be this just pervasive, overwhelming sense of people who just do not have appreciation for the things that they have and the things that they possess.

Kevin, I know that you had a few other scriptures that you were looking at that talked about either the importance of gratitude or why it's something that we need to avoid when it comes to ingratitude.

The One Leper Who Returned to Give Thanks

Well, I've shared the scriptures that I had jotted down, but scripture is just full of reasons to give thanks and commands to give thanks. And then we have the wonderful illustration of Jesus in one of his miracles where he healed 10 lepers and they were all in the same condition.

They had this terrible disease and Jesus healed them all. Interestingly though, he did not heal them like right when they were present with him, he told them to go on to the priest and show themselves to the priest.

So in an act of faith, they had to start making their way to the priest to show themselves clean when as they started going, they were not yet clean. So they're making their way there and as they're on their way, the miracle happens, their leprosy is gone and all that that entails.

And then one of those lepers came back to give thanks to Jesus. And Jesus commented, weren't there 10 who were healed? Is there no one to return to give thanks, but this one who happened to be a Samaritan?

And is that it, just 10 Where are the nine? And I wonder sometimes if perhaps that same percentage doesn't play out in common life, as we're showered with blessings from God, is it really true that maybe 10 of us really take the time to thank God for his showers of blessings?

What about the other 90 Maybe we can work on bumping that percentage up of those who are grateful. Need to get it over 10%, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving, Gratitude, and Christian Perspective

So as we're bumping into Thanksgiving, which is the reason why we wanted to cover this topic, just kind of looking at the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and what it's turned into, I mean, for the most part, is eating lots of delicious food together with your family, and then for a lot of people, taking a nap while watching football.

Well, what I look at Thanksgiving is it's a powerful reminder to be thankful. I mean, historically, you can debate what exactly happened between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, but essentially, they survived a pretty brutal time.

Native Americans helped them, and they were grateful for that. And so from that, essential story has developed over the centuries, our modern celebration of Thanksgiving. To me, it's a powerful reminder to be thankful, not just for the food, but for family, for loved ones, for, it's a powerful reminder of different ways that God has provided.

And so I'm glad that we have this holiday where at least for one day, most people at least think about the things they're thankful for. And around my family's dinner table, before we sit down and eat, we actually just share some things that we're thankful for.

So kind of in closing for this episode, I just want each of us just to share something that we're particularly thankful for this time of year, and I'll even go first. I'm thankful for how God has protected my wife and I and our parents from COVID.

As far as we know, none of us have had it, and we're thankful for our health. We're thankful that we can pay all of our bills. We're thankful for just the ability to enjoy life and to see God moving and working.

And in my service at GotQuestions, I'm so thankful for the results that we see. I mean, whether it's the podcast, whether it's the various websites we run, the videos, the translations, the audios, it's having people contact us and say, thank you so much for what you do.

It's benefited me in so many different ways. And hearing those testimonials again and again cause us to be thankful for God calling us to a ministry that has an impact. And I'm very thankful. I'm thankful for so many thankful people expressing their thanks to us.

And whenever we would reach a difficult day where it seems like we're getting more people complaining or grumbling or whatever, I can go back and read some of the testimonials. This is a powerful reminder of God is moving.

God is working. God is doing far beyond anything I can ask or imagine through GotQuestions. And I'm very, very thankful to be a part of that. So Kevin, what about you? What are you particularly thankful for this time of year?

Oh, well, everything, right? But if I just wanted to narrow it down a little bit, I would say I'm at that time of life that a lot of men go through, I guess the midlife crisis kind of thing, where they kind of look back over their lives and their careers, and they kind of rue the fact that they didn't get things accomplished.

Life didn't turn out how they wanted it or whatever. And I praise the Lord that when I look back, I see some failures and I see some things that I would regret and things like that. But I am blessed to be able to do just the things that I love to do.

So the ministries that God has given me, the family God has given me, and all of that. And I look at the fact that I get to write and I get to do audio recording, I get to direct plays, I get to teach the word of God, one of my very favorite things to do.

Every Sunday at church, it's just everything that I do is stuff that I love to do. And I just feel so blessed to be able to serve God in these ways and do the things that I love. God is good.

That's nice to hear that you are in a position where you feel like there's a lot of things that you're able to do that you like to do. I echo that in my life. For me, one of the things that I'm thankful for this time of year in particular is a little bit more philosophical, I guess.

But I'm especially glad that I happen to be in a circumstance where I have a lot of freedom. I don't mean that necessarily in the political sense, although that's more or less what I'm thinking of is I'm in a circumstance where I have the ability to say the things that I would like to say and do the things I would like to do.

And I appreciate that because it provides opportunity to tell other people about what we believe, about the gospel. It provides me with the ability to help people and to give answers and to give responses and to do those things.

And I know that there's a lot of people in the world who do not have that opportunity. And that applies not just to Christians, but to non-Christians and lots of other areas. But I recognize every day that I happen to be in a circumstance where I don't have to fear explicitly, immediately, some sort of government or social retribution just for expressing the things I wanna say and I want to do.

And that's not a small thing. That's something that's worth being glad for. And I'm thankful that I have the ability to say and do those things. And along with that gratitude for me comes a sense of responsibility that since I can say and do those things, I don't really have a good excuse not to, to stand up for the things that I think God wants me to say and that God wants me to do.

So I'm happy and glad that I have those opportunities. And part of what makes me happy and glad is it provides a sense of purpose. If that's something that he's given me, then that's something that I need to attempt to use.

I'm thankful for it, but I also feel indebted to use the things that have been given in a positive way.

So thank you, Jeff and Kevin, for sharing. And thank you to our listeners. We are truly grateful that you keep coming back and tuning into the podcast. And it's always our goal to produce something that's going to be encouraging and edifying to our listeners and also informative.

So I hope you hear us pointing back to God's word for the reasons for why we should be grateful. We have so much to be thankful for as Christians. Just hopefully this holiday, this year, will be a powerful reminder, as it always should be.

So this has been the Got Questions podcast with Jeff, the administrator of BibleRef .com and Kevin, the managing editor of Got Questions. Got questions, Bible-ized answers.

We'll help you find them.

And happy Thanksgiving.