Don't be Ungrateful

Tuesday 22 November
READ: 2 Tim. 3: 1-2
MORE LESSON: Psa. 103: 1 - 5

One of the traits that the Bible gives to characterise the end-time is that people will become increasingly ungrateful (2 Tim 3: 2). It is necessary to know the attitudes that constitute ingratitude so that you can guard against such in your life.
The first is that an ungrateful man does not give thanks, either to God or to man. When you refuse to give thanks, you play down on what is done for you. Ingratitude insults the mighty works of God; it is like saying that the deed was not remarkable enough to be appreciated.
Another trait of an ungrateful man is that he is forgetful. If you are a person who soon forgets a good done to you, you are ungrateful. Ps 106: 1-12 speaks of all the amazing things God did for Israel, but then in verse 13, it describes their ingratitude, . . . But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel: Psa. 106:13 (NIV). This is similar to how some people soon forget all the things God did for them and then behave as if He has never done anything before when they were hard pressed with a need.
The third attitude of an ungrateful man is that he is impatient. God has been faithful to him but because of one thing that he has not yet received, he becomes impatient. We have seen people rashly renounce their faith in Christ because answers to their prayers were not forthcoming according to their own sense of timing (not God's sense of timing). That is ingratitude. An ungrateful person will not think twice before he deserts someone who did good to him.
Lust and greed are also characteristics of an ingrate. When you have so strong a desire for something to the extent that you can't praise God until you get it, that is gross ingratitude. Envious people also are always ungrateful people. Envy is when you see someone blessed by God and then wish that you, and not that person, are the one with the blessing. Envious people are ungrateful for the blessing they have, they want another person's.
Murmuring and complaining are also the language of an ingrate. The children of Israel during the Exodus were not grateful that God parted the Red Sea and fed them with heavenly food – manna, they started complaining about lack of fleshy meat to eat. In the Western part of Nigeria, there is a saying that a person who goes around complaining, kills faster than a witch. Ingratitude is the beginning of the spirit of witchcraft. A person who always complains is digging his own grave.
An ungrateful man cannot be great: he is 'un-great-ful'. Uproot any manifestation of ingratitude in your life. Show gratitude for what God has done and He will do greater things.

Prayer/Action
* Father, the negative end time prophecies shall not be fulfilled in my life.
* Recall the goodness of God in your life this year and thank God for them.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, today, let Your jealousy arise against every satanic begrudging of my success, in the name of Jesus.