When we see the price that was paid so that we can have relationship with our Creator, when we understand the amazing love that made a way and washed us clean, forgave us when we didn't deserve it, set us free and gave us a life worth living, the natural response is to be overwhelmed with gratitude. And this, I think, is where it becomes possibly dangerous. Dangerous? Yes, because it's this very gratitude, which is natural and which we should indeed have, that can get us off course if we aren't careful. Because the natural next step after gratitude is to have a desire to please.
Huh? Allow me to demonstrate what I mean. I love my wife, and I am very grateful that she loves me. That makes me want to make her happy. So, I try to do things that bring her joy and comfort and not do things that would hurt her or make her sad. Love and gratitude. For example, when I finish writing this and doing my morning readings and prayer and meditation, I will make our bed. Why? Because it makes her happy to come home to a bed that's made. I don't know why. It doesn't matter. I know it makes her happy, and that's enough to motivate me to do it. But what I don't do is make the bed to pay her back for the love she gives me and all the things she does for me, nor do I do it to try to be deserving of her love.
We feel gratitude and then feel that desire to please God, to make Him happy, and even if we haven't heard the verse, innately we seem to understand that obedience is better than sacrifice. We know that if we want to make God happy we should serve Him, obey Him, and do what's right. And that is true, but what makes God even happier is for us to seek Him and desire relationship and closeness to Him above all other things. If we love Him, then, like I am with Leah, we will want to do those things that bring us closer and please Him and to not do those things that cause distance between us, make Him sad and break His heart. But we also need to remember that gratitude is not the right motive for obedience. Love is. Now love, flavored with gratitude is fine, essential and right. And I doubt that we can love without a measure of gratitude, but just straight gratitude is not the motivation that will take us where we need to go.
This may seem strange. Can you even separate gratitude from love? And isn't gratitude one of the most important attitudes of the heart? Yes. We should have a thankful heart. We enter His gates, we approach the awareness of His presence, with thanksgiving. Gratitude is essential. As I said, I don't think we can love God without also being grateful to Him and for what He's done. But, unfortunately, I do think that we can be grateful without loving.
Imagine a man walking down the street. He comes to an intersection and begins to cross. Someone grabs him, and pulls him back a split second before he is creamed by a car he didn't see coming. He is grateful, very grateful. He may sing the person's praises for the rest of his life. But he also may never love the person who saved him. He may love what the person did, thank you very much, that's the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me, but that's as far as it goes. Gratitude alone as motivation puts us in a position of debt.
Debt? Yes. It leads to things like this: Wow! God has done so much for me, I should do so much for Him in return, I owe God everything I am and all that I have. Which, of course, sometimes also leads to I haven't done all that I should.
But we can't pay God back for what He's done. If we were capable of paying that price, it wouldn't have been paid on our behalf in the first place. The entire point of grace is that God has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us what we could not, can not and never will be able to do for ourselves.
It's also an insult to God. Insult? Absolutely. Another hypothetical. Imagine, if you will, that you want to express love for someone, a family member or a friend, so you take them out to a dinner and provide an amazing meal for them. Then, instead of saying thank you. I am grateful that you care about our relationship so much that you would do this for me and give this to me, they look upset or anxious. When you ask them why, you realize that instead of enjoying the time with you and the gift you are giving they are busy trying to figure out what they need to do and what they need to cut back on for a while so that they can come up with the money to pay you back, to do something of equal value in return for what you've done. Doesn't that mar the moment? Take away from the gift? They've turned your expression of love into a trade, a business transaction.
Oh, let's not do that! Let us make sure that our gratitude is a seasoning to our love and not a meal on its own, because if we don't accept His love and grace as a gift that doesn't need to be repaid but only accepted, then we nullify grace. If we nullify grace, we are no longer walking in His power to serve and obey, but instead put the pressure on ourselves to perform to please and pay God back. And suddenly we are under all this weight to do the impossible, and when we fail, and we will fail, we pour upon ourselves the full weight of shame and condemnation that God desires, out of love, to spare us. Gratitude alone, can cause us to want to please, so we try to obey, which we have no chance of doing on our own, so gratitude alone can lead us straight to disobedience. But when gratitude turns our heart to love, and love is our motivation, then, with a grateful and thankful heart, we can receive the gifts and grace the He gives, and rely on Him to keep giving us what we need. That, relying on His love, His strength, to give us the power to walk with Him and to overcome the bondage of self, is the only thing that makes obedience possible.
It may seem nitpicking semantics, but it is the difference between life and death. Love. Love with gratitude, is different than gratitude alone. It's not nitpicking. Hydrogen and oxygen together produce water and bring the possibility for life. But only give either of them without the other, and it is only a matter of time before we die of thirst. Gratitude alone is not bad, but we do need to be careful where it takes us. Like hydrogen, it can be helpful and part of molecules that give life, or it can become the basis of a bomb with powerful destructive force. Let's make gratitude molecules with love rather than gratitude bombs.
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