Just think, we can walk right up to the King’s throne room. We have access to the King (Heb. 4:16). We can come to the throne of grace. The throne — where giving proceeds and prayers are answered. When will we find people knocking on the throne room to get in? “Find grace to help in time of need.”
Would we pray if we never had that moment of need? Perhaps, but for people who have troubles, there is an even more compelling interest. People with needs don’t have to be reminded to pray. The need will bring us to pray. People who forget God do not have a place for God in their life. Even the most selfish, unprincipled person who gives no thought of God, is compelled to pray when the unthinkable happens to him. They get miserably sick, or find themselves dying or, they look out the window and see a tornado bearing down on their house, what happens? They will pray. No one may have taught them how to pray. They will pray. People who find themselves in a fox hole will figure out how to pray. Why? There is a sense of need. When the sense of need arises, to a compelling and overwhelming level, people will pray.
We relate to prayer and asking. More prominent, in prayer and in scripture, were people offering thanksgiving. When compelling need has brought us to our knees and we have been forced to pray in our crisis hour, we must not forget to offer thanks.
Pray in the crisis, but do not forget to thank God when it passes. The problem with absence of thanksgiving is a problem that originates in the heart. It is the lack of a sense of need. When we do not have a sense of need, we may not have our sense of needs met. Without a sense of need we will not only fail to ask, we will not have thanksgiving.
Have you ever received a gift from someone that you had no need for at all? We have garage sales for things like that. You may say, “Thank you” for the gift. But are we thankful for a gift we have no need of at all? We are appreciative of the thoughtfulness of the friend, but are we thankful for something you do not want or need? Not usually..
There is a compelling thankfulness that arises when it is a gift that meets a compelling need. We say, “Thank you.” Why? Because it satisfies a need. Paul said, “I thank God…” (Rom. 7: 25a). “I thank God” for what? Who is thankful for Jesus the Lord but people who have felt the need without Him (Rom.7:24-25)? This man’s great hopeless need has been satisfied. It is such a great need that a great thanksgiving rises up. When there is no sense of need supplied there is no thanksgiving.
The greater the sense of need, the stronger the expression of gratitude.
Remember the story of the 10 lepers and how one came back? Where are the nine who had a great need and who received a great blessing? Out of no sense of compelling need supplied, the nine went their way and never said, “Thank you.” We cannot afford to join their ranks.
Quote: “Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” (J. B. Massieu)
by Rickie Jenkins
rickiej08@gmail.com
