Sunday, February 23, 2014

Dealing With An Attitude Of Ingratitude

My Utmost For His Highest
 
‘Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.’ CHAMBERS
 
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to serving others is an expectation of gratitude.  You might do something for someone with great need and their response is  … they want more.  I have observed in the past, for some people .. when they have nothing and they get something .. they soon seem to want everything.  Ingratitude.  If you become frustrated over people’s ungrateful response to your service or kindness … what that means is that what you did, came from an internal motivation to be and do good.  Properly motivated service to others will spring from the love of God.  You must be mindful of just how ungrateful you yourself can be toward what God has done for you and what others do for you.  And that realization will always temper your response to others.
 
Luke 17:14-19 ‘When he [Jesus] saw them [ ten lepers who wanted to be healed ], he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”’
 
I know it’s a stretch, but you could surmise from this story that you can expect only 10% of the people you serve will be grateful for the good done.  I know that is probably an inaccurate estimate, but it does point to the fact that your doing-good cannot be based upon how others might respond … but on the prompting of God’s Spirit and the love we are to show others. If people treated Jesus that way, why should you expect to be treated any differently.  And notice, Jesus did not undo the healing of the nine nor was he frustrated by it.
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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