DAILY HOPE DEVOTIONALS: DECEMBER 26 GRATITUDE AS THANKFULNESS (1) SCRIPTURE: NUMBERS 11: 1 – 11; LUKE 17: 11 – 19

Whatever should be pointed out for reason people are no longer rendering kindness to one another in the 21st Century should include failure of people to return kindness for kindness. The power of reciprocity in cordial relationship cannot be ignored if the people of this world must be at peace. Many kind hearted people living today, who have withdrawn from being kind to other people, took their decisions after they were paid back evil for good. Today’s devotional is looking at why thankful people are on the decrease these days. Thankful people are people of gratitude. Where gratitude is absent, thankfulness is absent. Gratitude is simply defined as “a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, for gifts or favours.”

Largely, all human beings expect that those they have helped, given gifts, employed, or built up academically and so on, ought to be remembering and returning candid appreciations to them. Both the Bible and the worldly books are filled with incidences of peoples’ ingratitude to fellow humans. This devotional will reflect incidences from the Bible. Readily reference is the case of the ten lepers who met Jesus for healing. Jesus Christ expressed His disappointment over the nine lepers out of the ten He healed who failed to return to Him with word of ‘thank you Jesus.’ Jesus really felt disappointed as seen in (Luke 17: 11 – 19). We will see how God reacted to the ingratitude of the Israelites when they complained against Him after given them Manna and Quails free of charge in Numbers 11: 1 – 11.

Refusal to appreciate good wills from people is as good as not being thankful. Appreciation or showing gratitude is one of the practical ways to be thankful. Gratitude can be expressed through words of thanks either by self or bringing people along to say “thank you” to one who has been that kind to you. Human beings are insatiable by nature. Whatever is given or done for a human being attracts a desires to receive more. This has been a bane to gratitude that should results into thankfulness. This devotional feels that more people would have been blessed if they have known that gratitude is thankfulness. See what one Marelisa Fofrega wrote here: “Gratitude means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive…”

PRAYER:

HOLY SPIRIT, build my mind and heart to knowing how valuable peoples’ help and favours mean to me so that I become a person of gratitude in Jesus name.

bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch