Ever been disappointed with a gift?

Of course, most of us have had the joy of anticipation fade into a lukewarm smile as we’ve unwrapped a gift to discover a pair of socks, a fruit cake, a seasonal sweater, or tacky tie!

Bad gifts aside, why are we so unthankful? It’s not enough to merely identify selfishness and discontentment as the primary reasons we are not thankful. There are deeper, more nefarious attachments that keep our hearts from landing on gratitude and, subsequently, expressing our thanksgiving.

1-Greed. Face it, we live in a greedy culture that cheats, lies, steals and Ponzi schemes it’s way to the top of the financial resource pyramid. We are more concerned with heaping up rather than dishing out. The unending desire for more and more keeps our focus not on what we have, but what we don’t have. Greed is an unquenchable thirst that materialism can never slake. Greed is a companion of jealousy. Curing greed inevitably requires generosity.

2-Expectations. When our expectations go wrong, our annoyance turns into bitterness and anger. Frustration becomes rage. And unfulfilled dreams turn to disappointment, discouragement and despair. We moan and bemoan our potential loss and find that our expectations failed us and that which we do have is unsatisfying. The experience of being let down/dissappointed by our expectations foster discontenment.

3-Indulgence. When we indulge, we plunge–total immersion. This immersion demands our thoughts and attention. We are unable to see that we currently have or the value therein. Indulgence has a way of turning us over to our senses. Conscience becomes impaired or warped and we long for things that have passed or we shouldn’t even pursue. Every thought, whim or fancy becomes our new “passion.” Beware of your passions, lest they impassion you to folly.

4-Sloth. Sloth is the old word for laziness. When you don’t work hard for something, the value of that thing is diminished. A “take-it or leave-it” attitude is quick to appear and value is little importance. When you value you something, it is often easier to be thankful for something. When you take something for granted, it is easy to de-value it and thus ingratitude follows. The cure for sloth is hard work.

The cure for ungratefulness is selflessness. When you are selfless, you have an innate capacity for greater love, joy, honor, mercy, forgiveness, and thankfulness.

Philippians 2:4 “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Love given is a powerful expression that can melt hearts, halt wars, and silence outcries. Genuine love is freely given with no expectation of return and no demand of performance. Jesus Christ is genuine love.

The Marks of an Authentic Christian

“Let love be genuine”

Jesus taught His followers how to live. Jesus demonstrated in deed and action that He could live what He taught. Even when mocked and ridiculed by those in authority He stood silent spit on, beaten and accused. He was more concerned with living truth than being right.

You can be right one moment and later realize that you were totally wrong moments later. Jesus with every reason to be angry showed honor to Caiphas the High Priest despite being slapped in the mouth, mocked and spit on in the face (Mathew 26).

Our culture is more concerned with receiving honor than giving honor. In our self-obsessed generation we want as many “likes” as possible. We are a culture of celebrity-obsessed people. We demand attention and affection from others, yet genuinely give so little.

“Outdo one another in showing honor”

In fact, many people have no idea want showing honor truly means. To honor someone is to show deference and respect to that person despite how you feel or even if you don’t agree. Honor can be difficult in a proud person because humility always comes before honor. Christ’s ultimate acts of love were predicated purely out of obedience and personal humility (Philippians 3:2-8). It is a lesson that we should well remember and practice.

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:9-10 (ESV)

Don’t read this if you find following Jesus Christ boring, inconvenient, uncomfortable or offensive. Don’t read this if you believe that He was merely a historical figure or a figment of imagination. Read on at your sensibilities being offended.

Christianity has become a cheap heritage in America. It has become a box to check on a form of our “religious preference.” It has become a loose association devoid of the depth that is achieved only by the Spirit’s leading. It has become a Sunday potluck of pop culture and personal preferences absent of the sword’s edge only found in the Bible. This Christianity places Jesus next to our idols of sex, entertainment, recreation, pleasure and ego neatly on the shelves of our hearts.

The only box the early missionaries to inland Asia packed was a pine box–their coffin. They knew they would return only to native shores by death. The only box the Carthusian monks knew was four stone walls of Newgate Prison chained standing left to starve to death. The box Bonhoeffer knew was the four walls of a nazi prison cell. Consider Polycarp in his 80’s knowing only flames of fire as he was burnt alive praying and praising God the entire time. How many Roman Christians paid for their lives at the wicked pleasures of Nero and Diocleatian in a box called the Coliseum?

These and many others of our brothers and sisters have paid the ultimate price because their refusal to deny Christ or depart from the faith as so many are in the habit of doing so. They have held fast to the hand that has taken hold of their lives. They have held loosely their lives, dreams, desires, and futures allowing the Spirit to be their guide. They did not try to control their
destiny. They did not live safe lives, because their lives did not belong to themselves. They did because they loved Jesus more than their own lives. And because, only Jesus could, through the purity of his blood as a sacrifice, satisfy the wrath of God against sinful humanity and offer the only true form of hope and redemption for their lives.

Remember this, Christ paid in blood. We want to be served comfortably, eat at every occasion, misspending and misuse the tithes and offerings on pleasure-filled escapades and label them “programs” and “activities,” and receive the recognition and homage that is only due Christ. Our inability to die to the flesh and walk in the Spirit has left us powerless, impotent an confused.

We have become addicts of a thousand forms of pleasure. We fear boredom more than we fear The Lord. Fifty years ago, A.W. Tozer wrote, “the present inordinate attachment to every form of entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline.”

Let me remind you of four teenage, Hebrew boys (Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, Azariah) who because of their refusal to accept cultural influence and rampant hedonism choose to be roasted alive and thrown as a piece a meat to hungry lions. Yet, God preserved these. So many others, He released from this world and brought them home.

“Home” a word many Christians have forgotten or never been instructed of its meaning. Home is the place of greatest attachment.

What home are you living for?

The words of Peter, killed for following Jesus,

“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.” (1 Peter 2:11-12, The Message)