Acts of Gratefulness

Being grateful and thankful...that's what we have been talking about recently. It begins with our thoughts - because of God's grace in our lives we give thanks and are filled with joy. A lack of gratitude will cause us to have a lack of joy. It then demonstrates itself in our words. You see, our words of gratefulness to God are based on Who He is and what He has done. A simple response...express words of praise to God. But it doesn't end there, it continues in what we do - acts of gratefulness.

Read this verse with me:

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."  Hebrews 13:15-16

Notice that both are mentioned here - "the fruit of lips" (words of gratefulness) and "do good and share with others" (acts of gratefulness). It begins with thoughts, moves to words and then to actions!

This whole idea of acts of gratefulness made me think of the account that is recorded in Luke 19:1-10. You remember, the short man named Zacchaeus. Probably most of us can sing that old Sunday School song - "Zacchaeus was a wee little man..." But what is the reason for this account? I hope that its simply not that short people should learn to climb trees to see Jesus! I really think that it is more than that.

Do you see what happens? Zacchaeus is interested in seeing Jesus even though he is one of the outcasts in that area. He was wealthy because he served as a chief tax collector and was considered a "sinner". Yet he goes to great heights to make sure that he sees this Jesus and then, Jesus calls him by name and invites himself over!

After some time with Jesus in his home, this is his response that is recorded for us:

"But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times that amount.'"  Luke 19:8

The response from Zacchaeus after being with Jesus is to act! God does a work in his life and out of his gratefulness, he acts. God's work is a work of rescue and restoration. Zacchaeus is an outcast, a sinner, yet Jesus came to rescue him and restore him. Rescue him from his sin and restore him to a right relationship with God.

Zacchaeus responds in a like manner. His actions are to rescue and restore. He gave half of his possessions to rescue those who were in poverty. They had no other way out of their poor circumstances, but he did. He used his wealth, giving out of his abundance to those who had nothing. And then he turned to those whom he had cheated and restored what he had taken from them. The law required that he return what he had taken plus 20%...but he does even more. He pays them back four times what they had lost. That means the $100 he may have taken from them became $400 instead of the $120 he should have repaid. What an incredible demonstration of gratefulness!

May we follow the example of Zacchaeus and allow our acts of gratefulness to be a result of the work that God has done in our own life.


"Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved."