Day 10/19 – Gratitude

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Gratitude
Day Two Hundred Ninety-two

“Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17

All you have, you received as a gift from God. When you boast, as though you earned it, you deprive God of His glory and provoke His anger. Note three simple observations regarding gratitude:

First, gratitude must be to a source outside of you; you cannot be grateful to yourself and biblically call it gratitude. God calls it pride. Pride destroys gratitude. “Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.”375 The claim to be self-sufficient is an affront to God as well as an expression of ingratitude.

Second, dependence does not guarantee gratitude, but is essential to gratitude. You will find this true, whether the object of your dependence is God, or someone else such as your spouse, employer, or benefactor. Gratitude is an expression of your dependence upon God.

Third, when your gratitude is to a source other than God, it is simply a matter of time before you cease being grateful. For example, a person works for a firm. At the end of the year the person unexpectedly receives a large Christmas dividend. Overwhelmed at first, the more the person thinks about it the more convinced he is that he deserved it. After all, did he not help the firm make the money? When you feel grateful to others you tend to seek reasons why the person was generous. Understanding your unworthiness and that “every gift comes from above,” helps you to be grateful, for you cannot have a relationship with God and think that you earned it. When you are the recipient of the generosity of others, be grateful first to God, and then to others. Only then can you hope to maintain a consistent attitude of gratitude and avoid the sin of presumption.

375 Deuteronomy 8:17-18

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Isaiah 56-58 2 Thessalonians 2 (New King James Version)

Isaiah 56-58
Salvation for the Gentiles
56 Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come,
And My righteousness to be revealed.
2
Blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who lays hold on it;
Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3
Do not let the son of the foreigner
Who has joined himself to the Lord
Speak, saying,
“The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”;
Nor let the eunuch say,
“Here I am, a dry tree.”
4
For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
5
Even to them I will give in My house
And within My walls a place and a name
Better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give [a]them an everlasting name
That shall not be cut off.
6
“Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant—
7
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
8
The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
“Yet I will gather to him
Others besides those who are gathered to him.”
Israel’s Irresponsible Leaders
9
All you beasts of the field, come to devour,
All you beasts in the forest.
10
His watchmen are blind,
They are all ignorant;
They are all dumb dogs,
They cannot bark;
[b]Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11
Yes, they are greedy[c] dogs
Which never[d] have enough.
And they are shepherds
Who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his own gain,
From his own territory.
12
“Come,” one says, “I will bring wine,
And we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink;
Tomorrow will be as today,
And much more abundant.”
Israel’s Futile Idolatry
57
The righteous perishes,
And no man takes it to heart;
Merciful men are taken away,
While no one considers
That the righteous is taken away from [e]evil.
2
He shall enter into peace;
They shall rest in their beds,
Each one walking in his uprightness.
3
“But come here,
You sons of the sorceress,
You offspring of the adulterer and the harlot!
4
Whom do you ridicule?
Against whom do you make a wide mouth
And stick out the tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
Offspring of falsehood,
5
Inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree,
Slaying the children in the valleys,
Under the clefts of the rocks?
6
Among the smooth stones of the stream
Is your portion;
They, they, are your lot!
Even to them you have poured a drink offering,
You have offered a grain offering.
Should I receive comfort in these?
7
“On a lofty and high mountain
You have set your bed;
Even there you went up
To offer sacrifice.
8
Also behind the doors and their posts
You have set up your remembrance;
For you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me,
And have gone up to them;
You have enlarged your bed
And [f]made a covenant with them;
You have loved their bed,
Where you saw their [g]nudity.
9
You went to the king with ointment,
And increased your perfumes;
You sent your messengers far off,
And even descended to Sheol.
10
You are wearied in the length of your way;
Yet you did not say, ‘There is no hope.’
You have found the life of your hand;
Therefore you were not grieved.
11
“And of whom have you been afraid, or feared,
That you have lied
And not remembered Me,
Nor taken it to your heart?
Is it not because I have [h]held My peace from of old
That you do not fear Me?
12
I will declare your righteousness
And your works,
For they will not profit you.
13
When you cry out,
Let your collection of idols deliver you.
But the wind will carry them all away,
A breath will take them.
But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land,
And shall inherit My holy mountain.”
Healing for the Backslider
14
And one shall say,
“Heap it up! Heap it up!
Prepare the way,
Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people.”
15
For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16
For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
And the souls which I have made.
17
For the iniquity of his covetousness
I was angry and struck him;
I hid and was angry,
And he went on [i]backsliding in the way of his heart.
18
I have seen his ways, and will heal him;
I will also lead him,
And restore comforts to him
And to his mourners.
19
“I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,”
Says the Lord,
“And I will heal him.”
20
But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21
“There is no peace,”
Says my God, “for the wicked.”
Fasting that Pleases God
58
“Cry aloud, [j]spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
2
Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching God.
3
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’
“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And [k]exploit all your laborers.
4
Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
5
Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?
6
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the [l]heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are [m]cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The [n]pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your [o]darkness shall be as the noonday.
11
The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12
Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of [p]Streets to Dwell In.
13
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,
14
Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Footnotes:
• Isaiah 56:5 Lit. him
• Isaiah 56:10 Or Dreaming
• Isaiah 56:11 Lit. strong of soul
• Isaiah 56:11 Lit. do not know satisfaction
• Isaiah 57:1 Lit. the face of evil
• Isaiah 57:8 Lit. cut
• Isaiah 57:8 Lit. hand, a euphemism
• Isaiah 57:11 remained silent
• Isaiah 57:17 Or turning back
• Isaiah 58:1 do not hold back
• Isaiah 58:3 Lit. drive hard
• Isaiah 58:6 Lit. bonds of the yoke
• Isaiah 58:7 wandering
• Isaiah 58:9 Lit. sending out of
• Isaiah 58:10 Or gloom
• Isaiah 58:12 Lit. Paths

2 Thessalonians 2
The Great Apostasy
2 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of [a]Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Stand Fast
13 But we are [f]bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through [g]sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our [h]epistle.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and [i]establish you in every good word and work.
Footnotes:
• 2 Thessalonians 2:2 NU the Lord
• 2 Thessalonians 2:3 NU lawlessness
• 2 Thessalonians 2:4 NU omits as God
• 2 Thessalonians 2:7 hidden truth
• 2 Thessalonians 2:7 Or he
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13 under obligation
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13 being set apart by
• 2 Thessalonians 2:15 letter
• 2 Thessalonians 2:17 strengthen