Steemchurch: Be grateful to God and rejoice in Him

Greetings brothers and sisters of @steemchurch

Philippians 1: 3-4
3 I thank my God whenever I remember you,
4 always in all my prayers praying with joy for you all

The apostle Paul thanked God for the Philippians, because they were persevering in the Lord. It is definitely a great reason to give thanks. We can say that believing parents give thanks to God because their children persevere in the Gospel. This is a great reason to thank our God, but in reality the Christian should thank God for everything and at all times.

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Gratitude to God is a moral imperative and a powerful force

Gratitude to God is the correct attitude of the human heart, forgiven, redeemed and blessed. This gratitude to our Creator, Savior and Lord is emphasized in many passages of Scripture. Luke 17: 11-19 tells the miraculous miracle by which the Lord Jesus Christ healed ten lepers. However, only one returned to the Lord to thank him and to worship him. This was nothing less than a Samaritan and the Lord Jesus said referring to him: "There was no one who returned and gave glory to God but this foreigner?" And he said, "Get up, go, your faith has saved you"

Gratitude compels us to obey God. In John 14:21 the Lord says: "He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved. for my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. " The grateful person understands very well that his duty is to obey the Lord, to obey or that He commands in his word. In doing so he is demonstrating his love and gratitude.

Gratitude impels us to worship the Lord with our whole being. Luke 7: 36-50 tells the story of a sinful woman prostrating herself to the Lord and worshiping him while a Pharisee only observes and criticizes. Jesus told the Pharisee about the woman: "Therefore I tell you that his many sins are forgiven him, because he loved much, but he who is forgiven little, little loves."

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Gratitude to God impels us to long to live in holiness. The Bible says that without holiness no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14). Only a person grateful for having received God's salvation can long to live in holiness. By honoring God in everything we do, even the simplest details in our daily life is to live in holiness, when we strive to please God with our attitudes, our character, with our thoughts is to live in holiness and therefore grateful

Gratitude to God impels us to be genuinely humble. Gratitude to God protects us from falling into pride and reminds us that we are totally dependent on Him. In Luke 18: 9-14 the Lord tells the difference between the prayer of a proud Pharisee and a repentant publican and says: "I tell you that this one (the publican) descended to his house justified before the other (the Pharisee), because whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself He will be exalted Being humble is thinking like Jesus Christ Jesus is the ultimate example of humility He did not value his own reputation or honor, but volunteered in every situation, so that God would be glorified through his life.

Gratitude impels us to preach the Gospel. It is impossible to commit ourselves to the church and to the kingdom of God without gratitude. To be grateful to our God is to rescue the souls, to give him encouragement, to bring the word of God to all those who need it so that they may be comforted. In fact, the Kingdom of God, from the human perspective, is based on the response of the redeemed person before the tangible love of God expressed in the death of the Lord. The correct answer can only be: gratitude.

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Ingratitude towards God is morally unjustifiable and destructive.

Ingratitude and disbelief go hand in hand. Although Israel was miraculously liberated from Egypt, he refused to thank God. On the contrary, he murmured against God many times. We find an example in Exodus 17: 3. The result: an entire generation died in the desert without reaching the promise. A person who is not grateful does not recognize the greatness of God, everything he has done for each one of us.

Ingratitude leads to betraying God. It was ingratitude that made Judas a traitor (Luke 22: 1-6). It was ingratitude that deceived the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32). By demanding from his father his share of the inheritance he was saying: "Why do not you die at once?" He was an ingrate.

Ingratitude is characteristic of a foolish person. Paul asks Timothy very seriously to avoid the ungrateful. In 2 Timothy 3: 2 the ungrateful are a major part of a list of people absolutely reprehensible from God's perspective.
Psalm 106: 7
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders; they did not remember your infinite love, but rebelled by the sea, in the Red Sea.

We have to learn to be grateful to God at all times and for everything.

The Scripture is full of references about the importance of cultivating a grateful heart. Psalm 103: 1-2 exhorts: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and bless my whole being with His holy name, Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget any of His benefits." Ephesians 5:20 and Colossians 3:17 exhort believers to live in continuous thanksgiving to God, for everything we do and at all times. To be grateful always to our Lord, we must recognize that everything we are and everything we have we owe to him, to our loving and good pader who gave everything for us on the cross of Calvary.

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Gratitude to God leads to joy and ingratitude to bitterness. Philippians has many references to joy and rejoicing. But we can only experience the joy of God when we have a deep and practical gratitude towards Him. "So, receiving us an unshakeable kingdom, let us have gratitude, and through it we serve God by pleasing him with fear and reverence" Hebrews 12:28.