Duly Dependent
Duly Dependent
He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)
Receiving Gifts
It’s one thing to be thankful for a gift you might otherwise have bought for yourself, like a DVD your brother-in-law gives you for your birthday. Those gifts are thoughtful and sometimes sentimental, but they don’t elicit the kind of thankfulness you feel when you get something entirely outside your power to obtain on your own. That kind of thanksgiving springs from a recognition of your own limitations and the goodness of the giver.
Receiving Grace
At the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Matt. 5:3). He calls us blessed (approved, favored) when we confess our total dependence on Him. Moreover, when we acknowledge our inability to satisfy our own needs, He tells us that all the resources of heaven are available to supply them.
Abraham Lincoln had the right idea when in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, delivered on October 3, 1863, he urged the country to give God thanks with “humble penitence.” Before going on to encourage prayer for the divided nation and the victims of the Civil War, he correctly reminded the people to stop pursuing personal agendas, living as if they controlled their own destinies. Instead, he called them to prostrate themselves before God and give thanks for His provision and promises.
We are undeserving recipients of His grace. We have every reason to be thankful.
Bottom Line
Humility is mandatory to true thanksgiving. Without it we have pride and self-sufficiency, neither of which leave any room for God.