We get
the teaching that we can do nothing to earn salvation, which is true, but that
does not negate the responsibility of a response to God’s great gift of
salvation and other related gifts:
· Forgiveness is ready
but stays at the cross without the response of repentance.
· Sanctification is a
process as effective as the pursuance of it.
· Treasures in heaven are
only as full as the storer’s commitment to abandon earthly treasure.
· James is clear and to
the point: Faith without works is dead.
· And even the hard gifts
can only improve our perseverance and character if we respond God’s way.
Thus,
grace does not exclude effort. Yet, it
is not a forced effort but a responsive one.
Gratitude is not “owing” someone, but a heart-felt response. Owing
someone a response turns gift-giving into a business transaction and reduces
the joy-response. It turns heartfelt
praise into duty. And while there is
nothing wrong duty, it should not come on the back of gratitude.
Gratitude
is more like an echo that carries the original voice far and wide. If an echo does not sound, it means there is
something wrong with the chamber. The
main way to amend the chamber is to turn it into God’s. The truest sense of gratitude is not just
gratitude for the gift, but what it reveals about the character of God. What the chamber seeking to reflect – itself
or the voice. Every return of favor is
to extol the character of God, even in the demanding, the difficult, the
discipline.
How much
does the chamber of our being seek to know the most about God, seek the most of
him? The hardest time to see God maybe in the difficult, but the hardest
time to remember God is in plenty.
May we
each desire the chambers of our heart to encompass all His gifts and echo his
character to the world.
