Tag: Bible Study

An unthankful heart is found in somebody who doesn’t appreciate the things that God has given them. Each one of us have been given more than we’ll ever know, so there are no excuses for God’s children to be unthankful! Unthankfulness is looking at the negative, despite the positive.

God’s Word even tells us how people can be given over to homosexuality and all sorts of uncleanliness because they were unthankful:

Romans 1:21,26-27, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened… For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”

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A couple really neat stories in the Bible stand out to me when the subject of thankfulness is brought up. One is when Paul and Silas were cast into prison, but instead of grumbling… can anybody tell me what they were upto? Let’s see…

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16:25)

Now if you ask me, few of us have circumstances like Paul and Silas had to complain about. But instead of complaining, they lifted their hands to the Lord with thankful hearts and began to sing praises! Why? Because they took what Jesus said literally when He told them…

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.” (Matthew 5:11)

They were taking God’s Word seriously, and praising God despite the physical (here and now) circumstances… shouldn’t we be doing the same thing today when things turn black around us?

So what happened to Paul and Silas and their reservations at the local prison? Let’s find out…

“And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:26)

Their praises during that time touched the very heart of God, and as a result, the very ground the prison was on shook with an earthquake and they were loosed!! All I can say is… WOW! I guess you could say that their singing out in praises in the face of despair touched the very heart of God! My question to you is, would God not be touched by our praises today? Would He not do the same thing for us today that He did for them?

Another powerful story of thankfulness is the story of Joseph. God gave him visions of his brothers bowing before him, but on the earthly plane he was sold into slavery. Did he once complain? Did he once turn his back on God? He was even offered sex by the wife of Potiphar, and turned his back on sin for the sake of doing what was right! So then what happened? She lied about him and had him threw into prison! Come now, how many of us are in such positions? This man was a beautiful man of God, putting His walk with God above everything in life, and yet he was sold into slavery, then cast into prison? If anybody has a place to grumble, I think it ought to be him! But he had his mind so much on the goodness and promises of God, that it didn’t even phase him! What happened? God promoted him to an extremely high position in the government, and was put in charge of the food (the #1 need of the land) during a famine!

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Let’s say that you had a grandson, and you went out and built him the best backyard playground in town. You spent thousands of dollars on it, and invested countless hours to put this together. When you’re all done, you walk your grandson into the back yard to show him to new surprise. He first screams with excitement and then he cries because he thinks of how wonderful of a grandpa he has, and gives you the biggest hug you’ve ever received. Then for the next month, he can’t stop playing in his new playground and continually thanks you up and down for such a wonderful gift. Wouldn’t that make you feel good inside for blessing him in such a way? You would probably want to run out and do it all over again, just because he loved it so much and was so thankful for everything you did.

Now consider if you went through all that work and spend all that money, only to have your grandson go jump on the swing a few times and leave, and act as if you haven’t invested a dime in it. Never once did he show any appreciation, or thankfulness for all you’ve done. Wouldn’t that make you feel awful? Wouldn’t that make it hard for you to continue blessing him in the future?

How do you think God feels, when He’s done so much for us (He made us, gave us such wonderful bodies and minds, then when we messed up, He sent His son to die for us, etc.), and then we go throughout the day not even stopping to think about all He’s done for us? We’re too busy taking our children to the baseball game, watching TV, and countless other things… that we don’t even stop to think about all God’s done for us. How do you think that makes God feel? Do you think He gets overwhelmed with joy, and can’t wait to send us more blessings? If you were in His position, would you feel that way? Wouldn’t you want your people to be thankful for the goodness and blessings you have showered upon them?

When we are thankful for the goodness of God in our lives, it touches the very heart of God and encourages Him to shower even more blessings upon us. A thankful heart is truly a floodgate to the blessings and goodness of God in our lives!

Psalms 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

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The Lord has shown me recently how important and vital a thankful heart is to our spiritual health. This sounds very elementary, but there is much to be learned here! This teaching was broken up into three parts because it is so long:

1. How God sees a thankful heart & Even when things fell apart

2. The seriousness of unthankfulness & Symptoms of an unthankful heart

3. How to become thankful

God has been prompting me to write this teaching for some time now, and now I know why! The Lord has revealed to me how a thankful heart can change the whole way you see life! It is a flood-gate opener to blessings, joy peace and all sorts of goodness. With thankful hearts, we can even touch the very heart of God, and King David even told us that when we approach God, enter into His gates with thankful hearts!

Psalms 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

I mean it when I say that developing a thankful heart can revolutionize the quality and enjoyment of one’s life!

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Today I was driving down the road, and God said to me, “Do you know how Valentines Day is coming up?”

I said, “Yes Father, I know.”

He said, “Do you know how powerful and strong and passionate the relationship between a man and a woman can be?”

I said, “Yes!!!”

He said, “That’s the kind of relationship I want with my people!”

I had some love songs on in the car, including “The Power of Love”… one of my favorites! It was as if He said to me, “I want you to listen to those songs and sing them… not because of your love for another person, but because of your love for me, and my love for you.”

I did… and tears starting coming down my face!

Then Un-chained Melody came on… another one of my favorites… and I wept almost the whole way home as I thought of my Father’s great love for me!!

During my time in the Bible last night, the Lord also reminded me of a Bible verse that shows us clearly that our relationship with God is supposed to be a deep and passionate love relationship! Take a look at Ephesians 5:25-32…

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

You know how passionate a deep love relationship between a man and a woman can be? They would do ANYTHING for each other… they would even DIE for each other… their love is so strong that NOTHING can keep them apart! That kind of a love relationship doesn’t begin to describe how deep and powerful and passionate our love relationship with God is supposed to be!

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1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In order to receive forgiveness, we must first recognize that we have sinned, confess our sins, and then believe upon Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and that what He did on the cross, He did it so that we might be forgiven (Matthew 26:28). Without the blood which Jesus shed on the cross, there is no forgiveness for our sins (Hebrews 9:22).

True repentance includes turning from our sins, and not continuing to walk in them. If you seem to struggle with compulsive sinful habits, you may need to be set free from a demonic influence. It may be necessary to renounce your sins out loud, and command them to leave.

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It’s God’s desire for us to believe upon His Son Jesus for the remission of our sins, and to have a clean conscience that has been cut off from our past guilt (Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 10:2, Hebrews 10:22). He wants to forgive us of our sins for HIS sake (1 John 2:12) and He even chooses not to remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25)!

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Guilt can serve two purposes, it can show us the problem so that we might repent and receive forgiveness, or it can rub our mistake in our faces and make us feel hopeless. The Devil is known for putting guilt on people, and is known as the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).

How can you tell the difference between condemnation (bad for us) and conviction (good for us)?

First, I’d like you to ask yourself, “Why am I feeling guilty? What is the purpose of this guilt?” Of course your feeling guilty because you’ve probably done something wrong, but there is a reason why your feeling guilty. There is a source or sponsor of your guilt; it could be God or it could be the enemy. God uses guilt to convict us (conviction) of our sins so that we might change and make things better (receive forgiveness), whereas the enemy uses guilt to burden us down and make us feel hopeless about what we have done.

When God convicts us, it’s so that we might recognize the problem, and work on fixing it. When the enemy condemns us, it’s to make us feel like there’s nothing we can do about it, and give us a rotten feeling with no hope. Therefore, ask yourself, “Is this guilt trying to bring me to repentance, or is it trying to tell me what a loser I am?” God doesn’t tell us what a loser we are, His desire is rather that we may be reconciled with Him and receive forgiveness from our sins. The enemy likes to show you the mess, while God wants to show you the solution.

If you have sins that you haven’t repented from, then by all means, repent and turn from your wicked ways!! Don’t try to blame your guilt on the enemy if you know your guilty and you haven’t repented of your sins!

If your sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9), and the enemy is burdening you down with guilt, you may have to renounce the spirit of guilt, and command it to leave. Also, resist the Devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

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It is often harder to forgive ourselves then to forgive others. But what we must focus on, is that when God has forgiven us, we are CLEAN (Psalms 103:12). We need to stop blaming ourselves for not being good enough, and accept the fact that our sins have been forgiven (1 John 1:9). God Himself doesn’t even want to remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25), so why should we? Are we smarter then God to remember something He chooses to forget?

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There may be times when we need to attempt to restore a broken relationship with another person. Jesus told us to love one another as Christ has loved us, and sometimes this may involve going to the person and telling them that you regret what you’ve done, and attempt to restore the relationship.

Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

If you have wronged somebody and it has caused them to have something against you, then doesn’t it seem right to go to that person and try make things right? Remember, your goal isn’t to rush into the room, yell, “I’m sorry!” and run away… your goal is to be reconciled with that person.

Matthew 7:12, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

It’s a lot easier to forgive somebody when they come to us and confess their sin. When you go to somebody and ask for their forgiveness, what you are doing is helping them to break down the roadblock that the enemy may have put in their way of loving you as Christ loved them. You are aiding them in removing an obstacle in their life that may be preventing them from living the life that Jesus wants them to live. What your doing is helping to break down a wall that the enemy has tried to setup between you and them.

Now don’t take me wrongly… I’m NOT saying that we must go back to everybody we’ve wronged and apologize for everything we’ve ever done wrong. That is legalism, and puts an impossible burden on many of us! What I am saying is that there may be times when you may have damaged a relationship with somebody, and it is important to restore it.

Please use common sense and direction of the Holy Spirit, as sometimes it can worse to go to somebody than to just leave it alone. If you wronged a prostitute 5 years ago, and are now happily married to the woman that God’s given you… it might do more harm than good to go back to that person and try to be reconciled.

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