Give Thanks in Everything

Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar was robbed by thieves. He wrote in his diary: "Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life; third because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed." The Bible says, "Give thanks in everything" (1 Thess 5:18).

Only one of the ten lepers healed by Jesus came back to thank Him (Luke 17). The others probably ran back to their families and children they had been missing for so long since lepers were isolated away from the community. We tend to concentrate on the gift more than the giver. Thanks is forgotten when the receiver overlooks the giver and gets preoccupied with the gift. When our children were young, we used to plae gifts under the Christmas tree. On Christmas morning, they were so excited that they would just rip open the wrappers with out taking time to notice the name of the giver written on the tag.

The one leper who was healed and returned to thank Jesus was a foreigner. He knew that the gift he received could never have been earned by himself nor could have been given by anyone else but God. When someone does for us what we could have done by ourselves, we might stop and say thank you'. When someone does something for us that we could never have done by ourselves, that produces gratitude. God has given us salvation that we can never earn by our own efforts (Eph 2:8). We should be thankful all the time for the gift of salvation God gave us through His Son Jesus Christ.

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Fulll sermon audio: Mathew Philip

Blessings

Mathew Philip

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