Why do we lose our thankfulness? I think one reason is we don’t want to be answerable to God. You see, to genuinely be thankful to God is to acknowledge His lordship. We can’t genuinely show gratitude to a Creator God without equally acknowledging our servitude to Him. Every time we acknowledge gratitude and thankfulness, we place ourselves back under His lordship. The rebellious teenager might mumble a thank you as he walks out the door taking your car keys and a twenty dollar bill. Why is that so difficult for some teenagers? They don’t want to acknowledge their appreciation because it implies that they are answerable to you.

Also, I think we are just too busy. The enemies of our soul, including our flesh, know how to get us busy, and good things become evil because they crowd out the best things. We spend our lives so often on things that will not count 20 years from now, much less for eternity. We fill our lives with concerns of the once-born. Now think about that statement. We fill our lives with the concerns of the once-born. But, we are second-born creatures. Also, much of the busyness in our lives today is centered on our children. Today we have moms and dads that buy their children everything and give them nothing. If you teach your child that the world revolves around them, do not be surprised when they act like it does. They need to know that your family serves Jesus Christ. There is a time to say no because serving the Lord is primary in your lives. Every mom and dad should get before God and ask, “Have we gotten too busy? Are these things, including our children, crowding out our gratitude?” It’s been said, “Remember, it’s at rush hour that the traffic is at a stand-still.”

I think another reason is that many just don’t know God. For instance, the man who finds a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk is thankful, but he doesn’t know who to thank. And that’s the way lost men are. They may look at their lives and be thankful in some sense that things are going well. They may have a good job or a good marriage, but they don’t know who to thank because they don’t know Him. How do you thank someone that you don’t even know? Every breath God gives is a breath we ought to be thankful for. Every stitch of clothes we have is clothing we ought to be thankful for. Every bite of food we eat is food we ought to be thankful for. Every blessing this side of hell is a gift we don’t deserve and we ought to be thankful for it.

Finally, we lack a determined purpose to be thankful. The bible doesn’t say to be thankful when you feel like it; the bible says be thankful. Have you learned that as a Christian your emotions are not lord, Jesus is Lord? Your will is not lord; Jesus is Lord. And, there are times when you literally must tell yourself, “I’m going to be thankful because it pleases my God. It’s taught in His word, and I’m going to purpose to be thankful to Him.” We don’t wait until we feel thankful; we purpose to be thankful. By the way, teach that to your children. Our children should be respectful, honorable, and thankful to others when they feel like it and when they don’t because it’s the right thing to do. When your heart gets cold, purpose to remain thankful. When times are bad, purpose to throw yourself into the act of thanksgiving. And as you obey His word, you will find that your emotions catch up with your commitment. You will also find genuine emotions of gratitude and thankfulness rising up because you obeyed the word and determined to be thankful.