I have heard it said that the greatest sin we commit is ingratitude. If you think about it, when we stop being thankful for what God has done for us, we become discontent and wanton. John Flavel preached a rather reproving sermon on ingratitude. Below is an excerpt.
Your ingratitude is the ready way to deprive you of the mercies you have, and to withhold from you the mercies you might have in your future distresses and wants. He that is ungrateful for mercies received, provokes God to remove them� If you are weary of your mercies, and willing to be rid of them, you cannot take a more effectual course than to forget from whom you had them, and withhold His praise for them.
Sure I am, there are some among you who have quickly forgotten the God that delivered you. Some that have abused him to his face, by ascribing his mercies to good luck, chance , and fortune: not once owning him as your deliverer. And some that have made his mercies weapons of sin, to wound him withal, wasting your estates by prodigality, which were given to refresh your families, and God�s poor; yea, abusing them to drunkenness and luxury. And is this the thanks you return to him? For which of all my good works (saith Christ to the Jews) do you stone me? So say I, for which of all God�s kindnesses to you, do you thus dishonour, and abuse him?
O let shame cover your faces this day! Go, reader, fold down this leaf, and get thee to thy knees, and say, I am the man to whom this reproof is sent. I have abused the God of my mercies, I have turned his grace into wantonness.
Recently a dear friend shared this verse with me. I hope it will impact all of you as it did me.
1 Corinthians 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. 7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
All blessings, gifts, understanding and wisdom come from the Lord? We can do nothing of ourselves but by HIM and through HIM?
