Keep Your Sense of Gratitude

‘…Forget not all His benefits.’ Psalm 103:2 NKJV

Author Philip Yancey writes, ‘I remember my first visit to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, rings of…tourists surrounded the geyser… A large, digital clock stood beside the spot, predicting…the next eruption. My wife and I passed the countdown in the dining room of Old Faithful Inn… When the geyser went off, we tourists oohed and aahed and clicked our cameras; a few spontaneously applauded. But, glancing back…I saw that not one single waiter or busboy…looked out the huge windows. Old Faithful, grown entirely too familiar, had lost its power to impress them.’ So here’s the question: Why do we lose our sense of gratitude and begin to overlook God’s goodness? For three reasons:

(1) Problems. If you close one eye and hold a coin close enough to your other eye, you can actually block out the light of the sun. Getting the point? (2) Pressures. Sometimes the perks we thought would bring us pleasure end up wearing us down. (3) People. When they disappoint us we turn sour and forget all that God has done for us. What’s the solution? ‘The unfailing love of the Lord never ends…Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.’ (Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT) God’s mercies begin each morning, and your gratitude should too. Indeed, your days should be saturated in it. Continual gratitude comes from looking beyond your blessings to their unfailing source, the Lord. His love, His faithfulness and His mercy are already at work when your eyes open each day.