How To Guard Against Ingratitude

by | Nov 17, 2021

Thoughtfulness is high on my list of what makes me feel loved. When a friend or family member remembers something I enjoy and gifts it to me, I feel so blessed. I cherish the remembrance like a gift in itself. But, in contrast, forgetfulness can sting. When someone forgets something important to me or about me, my heart is quickly saddened.

We tend to be people who remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember.

The Israelites in the Bible were a people who had trouble remembering. I wonder how much their forgetfulness saddened God’s heart. Yet, in His mercy, God always remembered them. 

They had been rescued from captivity in Egypt. They miraculously walked on dry land though a parted sea. As their enemies drowned behind them they looked toward their future singing songs of praise to a mighty God who had saved them! Yet, just two months into their new found freedom, ingratitude quickly set in. 

Why?

How could being freed from slavery not sustain their gratitude? How could miracles performed right in front of their eyes not solidify their trust in God to once again provide, even in the midst of the unknown?

Forgetfulness.

A failure to remember God’s faithfulness is what led their attitudes to choose ingratitude. 

This is what the psalmist David writes about his ancestorsโ€™ lapse of memory in Psalm 106:10-13(NIV):

He [God] saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy He redeemed them. The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. Then they believed His promises and sang His praise. But they soon forgot what He had done, and did not wait for His plan to unfold.”

Many times in the Old Testament we read how God โ€œrememberedโ€. Like in Exodus 2:24 where it says, “God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob (NIV).”ย 

If God remembered, does that mean that at some point God had forgotten what He had promised? That is not possible, since Godโ€™s very nature is perfect. So what does it really mean for God to remember?

  • God remembering is God fulfilling His promises to His chosen ones.
  • God remembering is God reminding His people that He is trustworthy and faithful.ย 
  • God remembering is God promising He will never leave us nor forsake us.ย 
  • God remembering means His children are always on His mind.ย 
  • God remembering means that even when His people rebel, forget Him, and then cry out for help, He answers.ย 

Every time God remembered, there was a specific and direct action toward a person or people that followed. He always delivered on His promises.

Glory Hallelujah!

The antidote for ingratitude is remembering what God has done for you.

So, when you start to forget and are tempted to go down that desert road of ingratitude, I encourage you to stop and do these three things:

  • Remember who God is and what He has already done for you. Read the Bibleโ€™s accounts in the Old Testament of God rescuing and saving His people over and over again from their enemies and from themselves, culminating in sending us Jesus to save us once and for all from our sins. Write down how God has been faithful and good to you in the last week, month, and year.
  • Focus your thoughts on what matters to God. It can be so easy to focus on the temporal, but God wants us to set our hearts on the eternal. Colossians 3:2-3(NIV) says, โ€œSet your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died to this life, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.โ€ Ask God to grow your contentment in your current circumstances and depend on His strength to carry you through.
  • Trust and wait for God’s plan to unfold. Jeremiah 29:11(NIV) says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Our obedience and trust will bear its full fruit of blessing from God when we wait on Him.

In committing to remember, along with redirecting your thoughts and patiently waiting for God’s perfect plan to come to pass, you will be able to guard your heart from ingratitude. And a grateful heartย will always experience the fullness of God’s blessing.

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