Why Aren’t People Thankful

Nov 05 2021 Why Aren’t People Thankful

Why are the vast majority of people in our country not very thankful?

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is there’s an awful lot that does my soul good when I have a grateful attitude and a thankful attitude. If you look at Romans 1, it gives us the answer to our question in verse 21: “They knew God going all the way back to the beginning. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. So therefore they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused.”

The question I’m going to ask is: does anyone have an excuse for not believing in God?

There’s a difference between knowing about God and believing in God. Romans 1:18-20 says, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them, instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”

The point is, according to the Scripture, the evidence is there, but people have deliberately pushed away the truth. If you look at Hebrews 11:6, “So you see, it is impossible to please God, without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

What are the results when we don’t believe there is a God?

  1. We cannot worship and glorify a God we do not believe exists.
  2. We cannot be grateful and thankful for a God that we don’t know.

So the truth about God in their hearts was pushed away and was not a part of their lives. So they refuse to honor and thank God.

Now listen to this very closely. It is not that they fail to know God and therefore do not honor him. They do know him, but they deliberately push him away. Dear friends, that’s where we are in our day and time. The Bible here is clearly saying that even if you’ve never read the Bible, even if you’ve never heard the name Jesus, if you just look around at creation, you can see it and begin to understand and think that something has got to be behind this. So, the Scripture says, “we are without excuse.”

In Romans 2 it says that God has given us a conscience. We have a conscience and we know and can sense when guilt and shame are out of balance and out of bounds. But if you look at the Scripture in Romans 1:21, again, it says they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.

So here’s the question then: What can we do about it?

Well, this situation can apply to followers of Jesus, as well as people who don’t follow Jesus. And so what do we do? How can we change this?

  1. First of all, for the nonbeliever, there comes a point where each person has got to humble themselves, cry uncle, and understand that God has done something to rescue them.

If you look at Romans 5:6, “Then when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Scripture says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

But the key is there’s got to be a sense of stepping out, believing, and trusting that God is real; he sent his son, Jesus; and Jesus was the Son of God: God in a body.

But then you have to understand that this is all a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). It’s grace. Grace is getting something we need, but don’t deserve. I don’t deserve his grace. I don’t deserve Jesus, but I need it.

I pray that if you come to know Christ, and come to know his grace, then you would no longer push him away. You say, “Lord, I have a lot of questions maybe, but if you’re real, then I want you to live in my life and make yourself known to me in a way that I’ve never known you before.”

If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, then maybe what you and I need to do is to review the grace of God and start thanking him. Not only with my lips, but with my life.

You think about that.