How Do You Cultivate A Heart Of Gratitude When You Are A Cynic Series

The death rate is still 100%. We are all slowing dying. This is the land of the dying. We are all headed toward the pit or the grave.

A few verses down in Psalm 103, David wrote this:

“…for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” (Psalm 103:14-16)

The writer of Psalm 47 understood this well.

No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— so that they should live on forever and not see decay. (Psalm 47:7-9)

Just a few verses later, the writer looks into the future with hope:

“But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.” (Psalm 47:15)

74 year old Richard Wilbanks was in his backyard in Florida with his new three month old puppy when an alligator came out of the pond like a missile and dragged the puppy underwater.

Richard jumped into the pond and pried that puppy out of the gators mouth and the video of this has gone viral.

The puppy was absolutely helpless to save itself. It was a goner. But Richard Wilbanks redeemed its life from the grave and didn’t even drop his cigar!

Jesus redeems our life from the grave. Death was once a black hole of hopelessness and now it is a door of destiny:

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor 15:55-57)

Jesus told Mary concerning her brother Lazarus who had died:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

This is a part of our forgiveness and healing. Our bodies my die but our souls are eternal and for Christians the grave is not the end of the journey but just the beginning.

There’s another way of looking at the idea of a pit. I remember being in the pit. I was in my early 20s and I was depressed and living in the pit of sex, and drugs and rock and roll.

On December 31, 1990, Jesus pulled me out of that pit. Do you remember the feeling on being so lost and Jesus finding you and redeeming you from the pit of your past and sin?

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” (Psalm 40:1-3)

When’s the last time you thanked God for pulling you out of the pit?

4. [Slide] “And crowns you with love and compassion”

When we are pulled out of that pit, it’s easy to feel self conscious and want to say thank you but hang our head and keep our distance from Jesus.