True Gratitude

Rev. R Van Ruitenburg, Chilliwack, BC

People versus animals

Although everyone in the family, even the very young children, A closes his or her eyes at the end of a meal, one would not expect that of an animal such as a dog; it would keep its eyes open, neither praying nor giving thanks. In spite of being one of God’s creatures, it does not know God and is not aware of His gifts because it does not have a soul for eternity. We are not animals, and we do have a soul, but what do we really know of God? Can we truly acknowledge Him?

Some time ago I met someone who stated that he wished he were an animal for then he would not go lost due to sin. Although we can have deep emotions, and we can have some impressions of God’s grace, our understanding is darkened, and so, like an animal, we cannot truly give thanks.

Only training?

As we can train animals to be grateful, willing to lift up their paws in the anticipation of a reward, we can also train people. We can teach them that it is necessary to give thanks and to worship the Lord. For some it has even become a custom to thank the Lord which they try to do by celebrating Thanksgiving Day. They even teach their children to be grateful, to join their families, and to faithfully go up to God’s house to sing His praises, but is this done only from habit—from years of training? Do they know the God who has provided all of the benefits in the past year? Even if they understand something of their dependency upon God, have they ever learned to experientially know the Giver? Do they feel like the dogs which “eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ tables” (Matthew 15:27)?

True gratitude

There are some whose hearts have been broken by God’s holiness and goodness and who have come to the realization that they have a soul for eternity. They are people whose understanding has been enlightened; they have become grateful that the earth still carries them and that the heavens still cover them. The Holy Spirit has opened their hearts and made them see what they did not see before; it is a wonder to them that God has not rewarded them according to the sins which they have committed against Him. Sometimes it is a wonder to them that they can still open their eyes and that God continues to allow them to read His Word. Although their faith is not always strong, they have learned to truly praise God for His goodness. They lack the words to express the wonder of God’s patience, power, and grace in sending His beloved Son into the world to save such a dead dog as they are.

Personal thankfulness

Do we know how to express true gratitude and to whom, or is our gratitude only an outward show? Remember, there is only one type of people who will eternally give thanks to God—they are those who truly give thanks because of the knowledge of their unworthiness of the least of God’s blessings. May God give us more people in whom He has worked deep and lasting impressions of sin and grace, of death in Adam and life in Christ. Then praying becomes real and sincere, not just a learned habit.

Do we remain like dogs, lying down, slumbering, ignorant? Pray that the Lord will bring you to true gratitude, for He is so infinitely worthy to receive our thanks. That is the most blessed place to be.

But He answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table(Matthew 15:26-27).

If thou be a stranger to regeneration and faith, a person that makes a powerless profession of Christ, that has a name to live but art dead—here it is possible thou mayest meet with something that will convince thee how dangerous a thing it is to be an old creature in the new creature’s dress and habit and what it is that blinds thy judgment and is likeliest to prove thy ruin—a seasonable and full conviction whereof will be the greatest mercy that can befall thee in this world if thereby at last God may help thee to put on Christ as well as the name of Christ.

— John Flavel
(from The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption)

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