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Part Three - The Path of Life
Chapter 15 Faith
5) Gratitude and Indebtedness
A Grateful Heart is essential to living faith. Sincere believers keep ever in mind that God’s power and grace sustains them, and for that they are grateful. Children first learn gratitude when the family says grace at meals, in the simple act of thanking God for the food on the table. As we recognize God’s grace everywhere, guiding our path and helping us in our weakness, we find more to be grateful for. When we encounter difficult situations, we can take the challenges as opportunities for growth and as God’s gifts intended to push us to higher peaks of love and service. Gratitude is the way to live with God, living in time with His rhythm. There is no room for complaint. Complaining is poison to the spirit, automatically separating us from God and blinding us to His good will.
Our gratitude increases when we recall our indebtedness to all those who have loved and invested themselves on our behalf—parents and teachers, siblings, spouse—and to all those we depend on for sustenance and protection—the soil and its produce, the workers who prepare and deliver food to our table, make the appliances we use and the cars we drive, the police and firemen who protect us, the doctors and hospitals who treat us when we are sick—the list is endless. Ultimately we are indebted to God, the Source of our life and the Author of our salvation. How can we possibly repay all these debts? At least we can be grateful; then we also can give to others.
1. Gratitude and Thanksgiving for God’s Gifts
World Scripture
O you who believe! Eat of the good things that We have provided for you, and be grateful to God, if it is Him that you worship. Qur’an 2.172
God created foods to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4.3-5
Abraham caused God’s name to be mentioned by all the travelers whom he entertained. For after they had eaten and drunk, and when they arose to bless Abraham, he said to them, “Is it of mine that you have eaten? Surely it is of what belongs to God that you have eaten. So praise and bless Him by whose word the world was created.” Talmud, Sota 10b (Judaism)
It is God who has made the night for you, that you may rest therein, and the day, as that which helps you to see. Verily God is full of grace and bounty to men, yet most men give no thanks. It is God who has made for you the earth as a resting place, and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape—and made your shapes beautiful—and has provided for you sustenance of things pure and good; such is God, your Lord. So glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds! Qur’an 40.61, 64
Ah, children—
Be not arrogant, but
Assist the deities of
Marvelous spirit power
In their work.
Even the grains, and the
Teeming grass and trees—
Even these are favored with
Blessings from Amaterasu,
Great Goddess of the Sun.
Morning and evening,
At each meal you take,
Consider the blessings of
Toyouke-no-kami,
You people of the world.
The blessings of the
Gods of heaven and earth—
Without these,
How could we exist,
Even for a day, even for a night?
Forget not the grace
Of generations of ancestors;
From age to age, the ancestors
Are our own ujigami,
Gods of our families.10
Norinaga Motoori, One Hundred Poems on the
Jeweled Spear (Shinto)
The unworthy man is ungrateful, forgetful of
benefits [done to him]. This ingratitude, this
forgetfulness is congenial to mean people… But
the worthy person is grateful and mindful of
benefits done to him.
This gratitude, this mindfulness,
is congenial to the best people.
Anguttara Nikaya 1.61 (Buddhism)
One upon whom We bestow kindness
But will not express gratitude,
Is worse than a robber
Who carries away our belongings.
Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
Be not like those who honor their gods in prosperity
and curse them in adversity. In pleasure
or pain, give thanks!
Mekilta to Exodus 20.20 (Judaism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Before eating food, good men and women first remember the bounties of Heaven, then the earth, and then humankind. (Way of God’s Will 1.1.2)
What is the essence of a life of faith? It is a heart of gratitude to God. That heart is the basis by which we can transcend the relationship ordinary fallen people have with God and enter a higher relationship with God—that of oneness. Should we thank God only when we are prospering? No. Did God care for us only when things were going well for Him? No. The more difficult the situation, the more firm was God’s determination, regardless of the suffering, to labor and struggle on our behalf. Therefore, today, to properly serve God as our Father, we should demonstrate our gratitude to Him when we are going through difficult situations rather than easy ones. When you understand this principle, you will be able to give gratitude to God even when your path requires you to bear a very heavy cross. (29:338, February 16, 1970)
Let us become people who at the morning breakfast table ask ourselves
what we are going to do after we eat this food;
who at the lunch table feel
ashamed and remorseful over what we have left unfinished;
and who at the dinner table reflect
whether we have spent the day well and concluded it without lack.
Father, may we be Thy children who ask ourselves
whether we start the day as Thine,
and having arrived at this moment, are Thine.
Yet have we spent this day with worldly minds?
When we remember Thy concern for us,
we know we must spend this day valuably.
When we lay down in bed, exhausted,
do we have any regrets of things left undone?
May we not go to bed until we have repented with tears…
Though my body is exhausted,
at the point when I can hold on no more,
I must think that in Thy longing for me:
Thou hast overcome suffering harsher than mine.
I recognize that only by overcoming this suffering
can I become a son or daughter who can comfort Thy sorrowful past;
therefore I shall purify myself on the path to becoming Thy child,
and offer myself completely as a sacrifice before Thee.
To live with gratitude—there is nothing else.
If some of us were given wives who are inadequate, still we can be grateful
that Thou has given us such wives, for we can serve them throughout our life.
If our children become the cross of our life, still we can be grateful
that through them Thou provideth us a way to bear a cross.
Though circumstances drive us to the pits of despair in situations we cannot control,
though we may collapse, let it be reckoned as an opportunity
to reaffirm our gratitude to Thee as Thy sons and daughters. (29:238, March 14, 1970)
Father! Please enable me to feel grateful for all the grace Thou hast given,
that a day could come when I could meet Thee—a day like today. (39:78, January 9, 1971)
Although you have nothing with you, you are happy because you are eating with the most wonderful Person. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)
Even as we endure and bear up under difficulty, we should be thankful and sing hymns. God may be on His way to visit us, but if He sees that we are enduring not thankfully but with bitterness, He will turn back. With what do we need to endure? A thankful spirit! Without a thankful spirit, we cannot endure. And even if we do endure, if we do not have a thankful heart, God cannot be with us. (44:28-29, May 4, 1971)
What was the Fall? [The archangel] compared himself to everyone from a self-centered viewpoint; this led to complaint. Complaint led to rebellion. Therefore, complaint is not permissible for believers….
To complain is essentially to attack God. But as we human beings have to repay God, complaining to God is absolutely unacceptable. My life up until now has been like that. I could never be a complainer, even though I was put in prison and tortured to the point of vomiting blood. Even though the entire world opposes me, I am grateful, knowing that it is severing my relationship with Satan’s realm. It is natural that we receive opposition as long as the enemy’s realm exists. Therefore, let us not complain. Let us be grateful for everything and every circumstance, and let us go our way in silence. (September 11, 1972)
Today God is examining us, looking at whether our hearts are truly thankful. It is like in a courtroom: when a criminal is being sentenced, if he or she accepts the sentence with gratitude, the judge and even the prosecutor will want to show mercy and reduce the penalty. (104:279, June 1, 1979)
[362] World Scripture - Gratitude and Indebtedness 1
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