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We tend to think about thankfulness as something we know we should have, especially in regard to the big blessings in life: family, spouse, friends, church, and so on, but it often remains a broad abstraction. Nevertheless, we think of it as something we do occasionally, while giving ourselves permission is the daily course of our lives to grumble and complain. In other words, the functional culture of our lives is frustration and ingratitude, even though we pledge to do better now and then.
Sometimes we hear calls to be thankful, we think, I could be thankful, if…, but that is not being thankful, it is being entitled. We take life for granted more often than we take it with gratitude. The Scripture consistently commands believers to “be thankful,” because what frees us to be thankful, the gospel, has already happened outside of us. Biblically, thankfulness is rooted in the past promise of the gospel, but it is not relegated to the past, it stretches into eternity as all gospel promises are fully consummated.
For all of our occasional bravado, at best we do not tend to think thankfulness is all that significant to our lives. At worst, we think of thankfulness in everything as weakness, a character flaw even. How often have you heard someone counseled that thankfulness was the key to their sanctification or someone with a porn problem pointed toward their ingratitude? Have you heard sermons on how to fight for thankfulness in a world that mocks it? You haven’t, have you? Why not?
The post David Prince – Ingratitude, Ethics, and Porn? appeared first on Apologetics & Intelligence Ministry.
