Webster’s Dictionary defines “ingratitude” as: “Forgetfulness of, or poor return for kindness received.” It can also be defined as not appreciating or valuing what you have, or have been given. Unexpressed gratitude is also ingratitude!  

We have been able to blame or place blame on some of the strange behaviors of people over the last few years on the pandemic. We know that a great deal of the negative attitudes and hatred were already in people, but it seems as if the pandemic added cause for us to become a more peculiar and misunderstood society.

One of the oddities regarding the peculiarity of people today is the ingratitude of others. Recently, I have noticed that people do not express gratitude for favors and services provided, as they did in the past. I recently had conversation with a mother who was upset because she was doing all sorts of chores for her daughter-in-law, but the daughter-in-law felt the mother-in-law was doing what she was supposed to do when she was providing child care services within the home. The mother was upset because she could not get a simple thank you from her daughter-in-law for her good work.     

As I was reading Psalm 106, it was evident that the Israelites were an ungrateful people. It seemed as if the more God provided for them, the less the Israelites appreciated it. They would worship and praise God for a short period of time, but when things were going well, they would return to worshipping idols and falling into sin. Because God is so loving, he continued over and over again to shower them with mercy. They would sing praises to God and recall all of his miracles, but their expression of thanksgiving lasted for a brief period of time. Generation after generation cared less about God’s miraculous deeds. Rather than worship him and praise him, they rebelled.

It just appears that people today are not as grateful for services or favors rendered. Do you ever get the impression, when doing a favor or good deed for someone else, you are treated as if they are doing you a favor?          

Have you ever given someone a gift or provided a service and never received a simple “thank you?” Have you ever gone to a drive-up fast-food restaurant to pick up your food and not get a simple “thank you?” Have you ever felt used and underappreciated by your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc.? If so, it is a good example of ingratitude.  

Back to Psalm 106. The people of ancient Israel were constantly complaining and murmuring regardless of what God did for them. It seemed as if God could never do enough. Do you ever wonder why there is so much ingratitude in today’s generation? Our past generations were a grateful and thankful people who expressed it openly and freely.

God said to the Israelites: “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey“ (Exodus 3:8). Yet they still murmured and complained, for it was not enough.   

May I remind all of us that we live in one of the most abundantly blessed lands in the world. There is nothing that we as a nation really lack materially. Think about it for a moment and just list those things that are so prevalent to us, but lacking in other nations. We have an abundance of food, shelter, clothing, water, electricity, heat, and lights, just to name a few.     

As we look at many of the stories in the Bible about Jesus’ miracles, only a few would return to express gratitude. He turned water into wine, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, and healed people from all over. How ungrateful many of the people were who received his blessings.   

Most of us are familiar with the story told in Luke’s gospel about the ten lepers in verse 12. It says, “And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:12-19).

The major point in this pericope is that Jesus healed ten, but only one came back to express gratitude. The question we must ask is the same that Jesus inferred, where were the other nine? 

The apostle Paul writes, “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.”

Remember what happened to Israel. They grumbled, complained and showed ingratitude and because of their ungratefulness, an entire generation, except for two men, died without seeing the Promised Land.

Let us not miss out on our blessings because of our ingratitude to God and to others!

Not a sermon, just my thoughts!

Robert Earl Slade, Pastor