What Is Pure and True Gratitude?

Rev. M. Heerschap (1911-1993)

What, then, is true and pure gratitude? It is humiliation, and as a fruit of grace it is the exercise of those who fear the Lord, for they are no longer under the law but under grace. In true conversion the sinner, through the saving ministration of the Spirit, is cut off from Adam and implanted into Christ. This change of state is highly necessary not only unto salvation but also for one to come to an inward realization and exercise of true gratitude. For through the enlightening of the understanding, we not only perceive the gifts of God in all things but also that these gifts are bestowed upon us by a beneficent God who is not obligated to us for anything. Then we perceive that God not only provides the necessary substance for the body but also grants so much unto the salvation of our soul.

Through this enlightening of the understanding and the renewing of the heart, there is a hearty desire for the Lord, to end in Him with all things and here in the midst of the congregation and His people to fix our thoughts on the eternal Thanksgiving Day in heaven, which will never be followed by a work day. This is evermore the work of those who fear the Lord. Then Thanksgiving Day here upon the earth is sometimes made, through the Lord, into a feast day. If the Lord himself is pleased to be in the midst of the people and they may rest in Him with all things, then the humble confession of that people is, “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” (2 Samuel 7:18). There is then not only a readiness and willingness to bring an offering to the Lord but especially that the Lord might be glorified in all His benefits toward us.

Then, especially in the sustaining of the life of grace in the way which they have passed, there is abundant reason for that people to be astonished in themselves. The Lord is not a barren wilderness or a land of outer darkness for His people. There have been times and moments when the Lord has solved puzzles and dissolved doubts, and that which was experienced in the inner-chambers was proclaimed from the house-tops. Thus, the Lord maintains His own work according to His incomprehensible wisdom, for those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. How many of God’s children must frequently lament, “I fear that I still miss everything and that my work is not true?” How many are tossed and shaken concerning there state for eternity? Many souls of little faith go bowed under the burden of their guilt and sin and under condemnation because of the demands of the law. There are times when they, with confused ideas and legal comprehension, so imagine the way unto salvation in their thoughts that they miss the rest and comfort for their weary souls.

How can such a people now keep a true Thanksgiving Day according to the will of God? In and of themselves, never, and then it is more in lamentation than in rejoicing; it is more in sighing and complaining than in singing and exultation of the goodness of the Lord. But the Lord, who knoweth the heart, knows that these people are only concerned with finding Him and that they cannot live without Him. For to such people, although they can find no gratitude at all in themselves, the Lord in His Word gives precious promises. He says, “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul” (Jeremiah 31:25). When this may become a reality in them, then they may in true gratitude exercise a low opinion of themselves and a looking toward the Lord and a waiting upon Him who alone can fill their soul with the good that never faileth.

It is self-evident that those who have the certainty of their state in grace, have a double blessing. For the more Christ is known and embraced through faith, the more joy they have in their heart, and all that they receive in nature and grace is given to them in God’s favor for Christ’s sake, and they receive it all out of His right hand and his Fatherly love. Then these believers of the New Testament Church, as at a Feast of Tabernacles, may draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation. The prosperity and adversity are accepted and approved because they see that it is all to the good of His own and will end in the glory of God and, also, that everything is according to the will of God upon that people in Christ Jesus; thus, they thank Him in all things.

Though sin and grace were never born together, and though they shall not die together, yet while the believer lives, these two must live together; this keeps him humble.

— Thomas Brooks

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