Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28
According to today’s verse we are receiving the kingdom of God… the very presence of the King is being received by us… not just once, a long time ago at an altar, but continuously, right now… It’s not some day in the future in heaven, either. It’s continuously, right now…
Since we are receiving the presence and majesty of Jesus on a continual basis, “Let us be thankful”. What an understatement! You would think that since we’re receiving a Kingdom we’d be overwhelmed with gratitude, but apparently Hebrews has to remind us to be. I wonder why?
Why do we have so much trouble being thankful in the NOW? Today’s verse suggests it’s because we aren’t satisfied with the Kingdom we’re receiving. I suspect that’s because we have trouble being satisfied with Jesus in the now.
There are some seemingly innocent emotions that can be gratitude-breakers in our lives. Fore example, how can we be thankful and be Angry, Depressed, Discouraged, Jealous, or Full of self-pity? These things are incompatible with genuine gratitude. Here’s why:
Angry and Thankful…. Can it happen at the same time? No. Being angry is focused on wrong, not on provision. Anger is focused on what we think should be, rather than what is. Gratitude is always present tense.
Depression and thanksgiving??!! They can’t happen at the same time. By its very nature depression is incompatible with thanksgiving and is more like the grumbling and complaining (not out loud, but in our spirits). You might remember that God wasn’t very glorified by the grumbling of the people of Israel in their travels to the Promised land. Nor is He by our depression.
A thankful heart can’t be caught up in fear, because a thankful hearts trust God. It trusts God’s faithfulness. It trusts Him when He says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Out of that trust flows a thankful heart. Non-thankfulness shows a breech in our trust of God.
A thankful heart cannot be discouraged. Thankfulness is full of hope because a thankful heart sees everything coming from the hand of God, and even using uncomfortable things that happen to build us up, not tear us down (Eph 5:20).
A thankful heart isn’t jealous. Jealousy has everything to do with being dissatisfied with what we have, rather than thankful for it. In fact, we are so dissatisfied that we wish (covet) what others have, instead of being genuinely happy for them that they’ve been so blessed.
A thankful heart isn’t filled with self-pity. It isn’t focused on ourselves in the first place, so self-pity would be far from a thankful person’s heart. Self-pity believes itself wronged, abused, and used and then FOCUSES ON THAT INJUSTICE. It’s one thing to know you’ve been scrounged, it’s quite another to focus on it. A thankful heart is too busy focusing on the good that God does for it to be unduly caught up in the injustice that it has endured.
Next time we’ll look at a few more diabolical hindrances to our joyful thanksgiving to God.