Hope with Grace – Part Eighteen
Thankfulness arises from understanding grace. We are thankful when we receive something that we desire greatly; that we love or delight in.
Gratitude is not complete if we are simply thankful for the gift. When we give a child a birthday present, they may play with it for hours, it may give them immense joy, but if that’s all that happens, their thankfulness is not true gratitude. True gratitude is not simply a delight in the gift but a genuine thankfulness for the generosity of the giver.
Genuine thankfulness can only occur as a response to grace. When we think that we deserve it; then we have misunderstood. There is a major difference in gratitude depending upon whether a gift is freely given or we believe that a gift is earned.
Consider this;
If my grandson helps me with some work in the garden and I reward him; he may receive my gift with a degree of joy and thankfulness. But there will also be a sense that he has earned and deserved that gift. Are we sometimes tempted to think that we have what we have because of our hard work and diligence? More significantly, can we sometimes presume that we have a right to God’s grace because of our own goodness and effort?
Gratitude is a beautiful flower that only grows in the greenhouse of grace.[1]
Our hope is based on grace, not upon our efforts. A hope that is based on our own effort, is not hope.
“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?”[2] (1Cor. 4:7).
“He Himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need.”[3]
Being truly thankful to the Triune God for grace in Christ is recognising His free gift of eternal life, identity, meaning and purpose. And in that, our hope is secured.
“The effort to repay God, in the ordinary way we pay creditors, would nullify grace and turn it into a business transaction. If we see acts of obedience as instalment payments, we make grace into a mortgage… Let us not say that grace creates debts; let us say that grace pays debts.”[4]
Blessings,
Brian
[1] James Calderazzo
[2] 1 Corinthians 4:7 NLT
[3] Acts 17:25 NLT
[4] Piper J Future Grace Multnomah Books Oregon (1995) p40