This study guide was produced by Keswick Ministries. Keswick Ministries hosts a Convention for 3 weeks each summer in the English Lake District. They also run year-round teaching and training events and produce digital and printed resources. The central vision of Keswick Ministries is to see the people of God equipped, encouraged and refreshed to love and live for Christ in his world. We hope you are blessed by this series.
Before supper, Bart Simpson (from the irreverent US TV animation
The Simpsons) would say, ‘Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves,
so thanks for nothing.’ At times, we are equally, staggeringly ungrateful.
Grace before meals becomes rote and our prayers a shopping list of
demands. When we don’t get what we want from God – healing, a spouse,
a child, a new job – we start grumbling. How quickly all God’s goodness
and faithfulness to us in the past fades from our memories when he doesn’t
appear to be stepping up to the plate this time.
How do we refocus on all that God has given us and, more importantly,
on God himself? How do we cultivate the holy habit of gratitude in the
bad times as well as the good?
If I could write as I would about the goodness of God to me, the ink would boil in my pen.
(Hymnwriter Frances Ridley Havergal, quoted in Steven J. Lawson,Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 76–150, p. 175)
1 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and
wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron,
and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or
in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let
us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.
Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ 4 And they said to each
other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’ 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of
Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their
clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, ‘The land we passed
through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the Lord is pleased with
us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey,
and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not
be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their
protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.’ 10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory
of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. 11 The
Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt?
How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have
performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and
destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger
than they.’
Consciously pause to spend time thanking God for his blessings. Use your
answers to question 5 above to help you get started. As the old song says,
‘Count your blessings, name them one by one!’ Be specific and detailed,
knowing that your thanksgiving is bringing glory to God today.
God is not glorified if the foundation of our gratitude is the worth of the gift and not the excellency of the Giver. If gratitude is not rooted in the beauty of God before the gift, it is probably disguised idolatry. May God grant us a heart to delight in him for who he is, so that all our gratitude for his gifts will be the echo of our joy in the excellency of the Giver.
(John Piper, A Godward Life, p. 214)