Futile and foolish.

Paul’s letter to the Roman church leaves us with a stark thought which may shock you.

In the opening chapter of his letter Paul describes a generation which knew God but wilfully ignored Him. Paul describes the generation in shocking detail (and it is even more alarming as to how relevant it seems today). But what is the most shocking aspect of all this is that right at the beginning of this list of ‘perversions’ [which not only harm our relationship with God but ourselves too] is not giving thanks to God!

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Rom 1:21

Our Pastor reminded us of this while he was preaching on Sunday. There is a difference between being thankful and giving thanks. Deep down we are all essentially thankful for what we have, but we are called to give thanks to God our provider; He is our [complete] provision.

What makes it worse still is that the more we refuse [or neglect] to give thanks to God, the more foolish we become. This stands to reason; if your car had broken down on the roadside, you’d be really stupid to ignore the AA man!

“What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.” Rom 1:21-23 (Msg)

When I think about this, three things spring to mind:
1) have I thanked God enough today for all He has done for me?
2) no wonder so many of the greatest minds mankind has produced all worshiped God!
3) how stupid would I be not to thank God for everything he does for me!