Dangers of Ingratitude

Tuesday 9 January
READ: Psalm 100:1-5
MORE LESSON: Luke 17:12-19

God expects us to be grateful to Him. Every loving parent teaches their children to be appreciative of the support given them by all. Most times we claim we are grateful to God yet we do not show any sign of gratitude to our fellow man. But if we are not grateful to people who we can see, how can we be grateful to God who we cannot see? The Bible calls such a person a liar in I Jn. 4:20, If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.... We must therefore learn to appreciate God and the people He uses to help us. We must also appreciate God even for yet unanswered prayers. We must give thanks for all things.

When we live a life of not appreciating what God does for us, we heap a lot of trouble on ourselves:
1.We lock the doors of blessing. Do you know that a single “thank you” can lead to another kindness? Psa. 100:4 says, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.... This means anyone who is not thankful at the gate cannot access the court. Our thanksgiving at the gate is our password to entering the court. The court is where God dwells, and everything we need or will ever need is found there. But ingratitude can hinder us from entering the court.

2.We activate anxiety in our lives. No wonder the Bible says in Phil 4:6, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. We must present our requests to God with thanksgiving. Whenever we are not grateful for what God has done for us, the good things He has done diminish in our hearts and the things He is yet to do are magnified. This is a trick of the devil to make you feel that God is not faithful and therefore afflict you with anxiety. If you learn to see what God has done and thank Him for it while waiting patiently for Him to do others, you will save yourself  the trouble of anxiety.

3.We become short sighted. An ungrateful man is one who lacks the ability to see and appreciate the good done to him. So any man who chooses to be ungrateful will always only see what has not been done for him. We do this a lot of times. When we take a record of all that God has done for us against what He has not done, we will discover that what He has done is more than what He is yet to do. But when we complain, we sound as if God has not done anything for us. This is what ingratitude can do- make you short sighted.  

Prayer/Action
*Confess every act of ingratitude to God and men.
*Ask the Lord to give you grace to be grateful.
*Thank God for everything around your life.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, in 2018, make a way for me that even with closed eyes, I shall not miss my way, in the name of Jesus.