Grace and Gratitude

Romans 11:35-" Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"

The answer is nobody!!!!

There are many times when our culture thinks otherwise. We're disappointed with our family, neighbors, work, the waitress, the sales clerk. Ultimately we are disappointed with God. He hasn't given us everything we want! I find myself being that person way too often!

In Randy Alcorn's book, "The Grace and Truth Paradox" he states:"If only we could see our situation clearly even for a moment. We deserved expulsion; He gave us a diploma. We deserved the electric chair; He gives us a parade. Anything less than overwhelming gratitude should be unthinkable. He owes us nothing! We owe Him everything! When you realize you deserve nothing better than hell, it puts a 'bad day' in perspective, doesn't it? If I grasp that I deserve hell, I'll be filled with gratitude not only for God's huge blessings- including my redemption and home in heaven-but also for His smaller blessings: sun, rain, a beating heart, eyes that see, legs that walk, a mind that thinks. If I don't have these, I'll be overwhelmed with the knowledge that I have plenty I don't deserve. And because Christ allowed Himself to be crushed under the weight of my sin, I'll enjoy forever a clear mind and perfect body."

What a great reminder of the grace that God has so richly poured out on such wretched sinners as I. How great it is to walk out into the world and answer the question "how are you doing?" and be able to answer with great gratitude that I am doing better then I derserve!!!

The Attitude of Gratitude

This morning I read the following story and was oh so convicted! It is amazing how one woman's grateful heart affected so many others!

"By today’s standard’s she should have been an unhappy, troubled woman. Her father died when she was quite young, leaving her to be raised by her mother and grandmother. As a result of a doctor’s careless error when she was only six weeks old, she was afflicted with lifelong blindness.

The tragic and traumatic experience of this woman’s childhood years would have given most people more than enough grounds for a lifetime of self-pity, bitterness, and psychological disorders. Yet, in her autobiography, Frances Jane Crosby wrote, “It seemed intended by the blessed Providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation.”

The doctor who destroyed her sight never forgave himself and moved from the area, but there was no room in Fanny Crosby’s heart for resentment. “If I could meet him now,” she wrote, “I would say ‘Thank you, thank you’—over and over again—for making me blind.”

The blindness that many would have considered at best an accident, and at worst a curse, was considered by Fanny to be one of her greatest blessings. She accepted her blindness as a gift from God. “I could not have written thousands of hymns,” she said, “if I had been hindered by the distractions of seeing all the interesting and beautiful objects that would have been presented to my notice.”

Fanny’s first poem, written when she was eight years old, reflects the perspective that was hers until her death at the age of ninety-five:

Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessing I enjoy
That other people don’t
So weep of sight because I’m blind,
I cannot, no I won’t!

For over a century, the Church has reaped the rich benefits of one woman’s thankful heart, as we sing “To God Be the Glory,” Blessed Assurance,” “Redeemed,” “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me,” and countless others of the 8,000 songs that Fanny Crosby wrote in her lifetime.

In a world that has forgotten how to be grateful; the example of this beloved, blind hymn-writer seems extraordinary, if not downright odd! But, oh, what a price we pay for our personal collective ingratitudes!"