For all that God has done for us in and through Christ, surely we must feel grateful. God has lavished His love on us that He made the way for us to be His adopted children, rescued and restored to Him as sons and daughters. When we think of His goodness, we will never have a reason to stop being thankful.
I, for one, am always brought to tears at how God was gracious to me. I was undeserving of His love and mercy, yet He gave it nonetheless. I thought I was unlovable, but was proven wrong when He loved me. And I am sure that I am not the only who felt and thought that way. You probably did, too.
God's love is so great, and His grace so amazing, that anyone who experiences Him cannot stop but desire to respond in kind. Are you thinking of ways to show your gratefulness to God for His goodness? Here are but some ways.
1. Truly Repent of Your Sins
Friends, gratefulness to God for Christ would always lead to repentance—a turning away from our sins.
We can't say "thank you God for saving me" if we keep doing the same things that He saved us from. A grateful heart will be evident in a changed life. If we are truly grateful for God's mercies, the least that we can do is turn away from the things that He didn't want us to do in the first place.
2. Obey His Commands
The Lord Jesus said if we love Him, we will obey all that He says (see John 14:15, 23). After turning from our sinful ways, the next thing we should do, if we are truly grateful, is to do what He says, according to the Word of God.
Let me emphasise those last six words. God's commands are clearly and simply stated in the Word of God, and nothing else. If we can't read the Word and do what it says, we're simply fooling ourselves. Gratefulness to God would always result in a loving obedience and adherence to His Words.
3. Love Your Neighbour
Here's the challenging part. It's easy to stop our personal vices, but it's hard to forgive an offender or bless an enemy. Christ, however, wants us to do just that.
The Lord Jesus said that next to loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving our neighbours comes next (see Matthew 22:36-40). He could've meant literal neighbours (as in the person living on the other side of your fence), but He also meant others whom we don't like (see Matthew 5:43-48).
Christ modelled it. He loved all sorts of despised people during His earthly ministry. He even died for all sorts of people, including all who persecute us for being Christians (see Romans 5:8). Seriously, if we are grateful to Christ for dying for us, then we should at least love the people that He loved, atoned for, and died for.
And the best way to do that would be praying for them and sharing the gospel to them with love (see John 14:15; Matthew 28-18-20; Mark 16:15).
