Expanding our capacity for gratitude leads to an increase
in the virtue of HOPE. Look at it this way: the more aware we become of just
how much God cares for us on a regular, daily, hourly and consistent basis, the
better able we are to avoid panic, discouragement or despair when we are
confronted with some trial or disappointment in the present. As the hymn has
it: “’tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” God
has been there for me in any and all difficulties yesterday and the day before
and throughout my life. Surely now God is going to help me in this particular
situation, he is going to help me through this trial, he will help me “break
through any barrier” as it says in the psalms.
There
is a clear admonition in the Scriptures to REMEMBER what God has done. Consider
these verses from Psalm 78: “. . . they
too should set their hope in God and never forget God’s deeds.” (Psalm 78:7)
Psalm 78 is the story of Israel in the desert on their
way to the promised land, and it is a chronicle of how again and again the
people angered God. Every time they came up against a new difficulty or
obstacle, rather than remember all he had already done for them, they gave
themselves over to doubting and whining and complaining.
Of course, we’re never like that, are we?
Anyway, if you have a chance this weekend, go and read
psalm 78, a saga about what happens when an entire nation of people loses its
sense of gratitude, and therefore its sense of hope. (Or perhaps you can go and
read a few articles in the news this weekend or any day.
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