During His earthly ministry, Christ healed multitudes. Yet how many of them were truly thankful for His wondrous touch?

Luke 17 records the account of Jesus healing the ten lepers. Though ten were healed, only one thanked Jesus. Imagine Jesus sorrowfully stating, “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger” (Luke 17:17-18).

Too often, you and I repeat the mistake of the nine lepers when, to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, we take things for granted, instead of taking them with gratitude.

True gratitude is truly transformative. It reminds who God is and what He has done for us, helping us to live the lives we were designed to live.

In this post, we’ll unpack three gratitude questions. Have we forgotten God? What happens when we forget God? How can we live grateful lives today?

Have We Forgotten God?

When asked why Russians lost their freedom, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn candidly replied, “Because we forgot God.”

According to Don Mcalvany, “The average American… basks in the comfort zone–spoiled and softened by over seventy years of uninterrupted prosperity since the end of World War II and convinced that the good life will go on for ever.”

Compared to one-hundred years ago, most Americans have access to better healthcare, better jobs, more money, and bigger and nicer houses. They enjoy air conditioning, entertainment, online shopping, vacations, television, smartphones, and almost every other imaginable convenience. 

In the midst of this prosperity, we must ask ourselves, “Have we become so busy enjoying our conveniences that we’ve forgotten the One who’s given them to us?

Unfortunately, all these things haven’t made us happier. In America, suicide now claims more lives each year than does car crashes. Additionally, we live in one of the most depressed generations ever.

Could it be that we’ve forgotten the God this nation was founded upon?

What Happens When We Forget God?

In Deuteronomy 8, God charged Israel to remember what He did for them in the wilderness and to never forget Him as the source of all blessings in Canaan.

Deuteronomy 8:11-14 says,

“Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;”

God warned Israel that they would be destroyed if they ever forgot Him (Deuteronomy 8:15-21). Sadly, the warning was not heeded. The Old Testament testifies to this sad reality.

Unfortunately, it seems that America is indeed similar to Israel pre-captivity. We’re wealthy, prosperous, forgetful, and ungrateful.

Someone once observed the following regarding cycles of history:

“From bondage comes spiritual faith. From spiritual faith comes courage. From courage comes liberty. From liberty comes abundance. From abundance comes complacency. From complacency comes apathy. From apathy comes dependency. From dependency comes bondage.”

Abundance has made us complacent, apathetic, and verging on dependent. Will America soon be in bondage?

How Can We Be Grateful Today?

Thankfully, there is hope, because God still works today as He did in past.

National revival begins in your heart and mine, when we remember God. First take your “gratitude temperature.” Ask yourself,

• Am filled with stress or gratitude?
• Is God or materialism the focus of your life? 
• Am I so busy accumulating and enjoying the blessings of God that I’ve neglected the God of the blessings?

Second, find time in the morning and throughout the day to appreciate God’s blessings.

Last, always recognize God as the source of all blessings. Consider David’s perspective in I Chronicles 29:11-14,

“Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.“

What Do You Really Deserve?

When we acknowledge that God as the source, we realize we’ve been given so much and we deserve nothing more than hell. In turn, this mental shift radically transforms the way we live.

James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

In her book, Choosing Gratitude, Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth noted, “Gratitude changes the way we start the day, spend the day, look back at the day. It defines us as a people who value are relationship with God and with those he has placed around us. By thanking Him and others throughout the day we are expressing humility realizing that these benefits are all undeserved.”

Question: Why is true gratitude so powerful? What little action steps can we take to become more grateful every day?