Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. I Chronicles 16:34 NIV

Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalms 107: 8-9 NIV

. Practice looking to see the good in everybody, everything and every situation then learn to appreciate and enhance that good. (One of mine)

This Demon of Non-Appreciation works very diligently to focus our attention on all things negative and to blind us to the many blessings God shower over us; our health, spouse, family, job, home, church, etc., every day. This demon wants us to take God’s blessings for granted, to accept them as being routine without embracing their great value. The demon’s goal is to prevent or destroy our relationship with God. Hopefully the following text will help you be more aware of how we fail to appreciate the many blessings God has given us. Don’t feel alone in this, we all are guilty at some times in our lives.

While you are reading this text has it occurred to you that being able to read is a blessing on several levels? First you are blessed to have vision, you were blessed when someone cared enough to teach you how to read, you are blessed because you have the ability to understand what you read and lastly, someone instilled I you a desire to read. Lack most of us you probably seldom, if ever, consider reading as anything more then a routine part of your daily activities, nothing we would pause and consciously appreciate. It’s only when something, such as failing vision, threatens our ability to read that we consciously begin to appreciate what a great blessing and critical need, the ability to read really is.

So it is with us in so many ways. We are so busy making a living we often forget to stop and enjoy the things God has blessed us with. God blesses us with a new house but do we take time to dedicate the house to God and thank him for the blessing? Do we use that house to make a loving home for our family and neighbors to come together in fellowship? Do we really appreciate the house that God blest us with or do we see it as just a stepping-stone to get to the next, bigger, house? How would you feel if you gave one of your children and his/her mate a new house for a wedding gift and they never said thank you or invited you in? God feels the same way when we take His blessing, such as a house, for granted.

Our marriage should be the major support stone for our lives. Husbands and wives have to love, respect support and re-enforce each other every day. This is so critical in today’s social and work environment. A spouse must show and tell their mate they are appreciated. It matters not if the mate is a stay at home parent or a business executive. Even though many people profess to not need or want recognition for their efforts, it’s usually not true, we all like to get that “warm fuzzy” of affirmation from the ones we love and respect. Don’t be stingy in this department, when your spouse does something good, even small things, tell them you appreciate it. The thing they did could be for you personally, a family member or the family in general I any case they deserve a show of appreciation. Showing appreciation is really a show of respect and love which are parts of building a solid marriage, family and home.

Take the story of a teenage boy named Tommy for an example of non-appreciation. Tommy belonged to a middle class family and every week the father would give Tommy $75.00 for allowance. In the 1970’s that was a very generous allowance and Tommy was the envy of all his friends. Tommy’s dad would allow him use of the family car some Saturday nights and this made Tommy very popular with his buddies and the girls. Because Tommy’s dad was so generous with his children he could not afford to shop at the usual men stores, instead he would often pick up some things for himself at the dollar store. One day shortly before Father’s Day Tommy’s Mom reminded him that he should buy a nice gift for his father. Tommy’s dad was in the next room and he heard Tommy as he complained to his Mom that he was going to a hot party and had no money to spend on a gift for Dad. Tommy’s Mom insisted and Tommy grudgingly agreed to buy a gift. However, Tommy assured his Mom it would not be much of a gift because he needed his allowance money for the party.

Dad opened his gift from Tommy on Father’s Day and he immediately recognized the bundle of socks. They were the same ones he had looked at in the dollar store and decided they were too cheap even though there were ten pairs in a bundle for one dollar, ten cents a pair.

Dad was very deeply hurt and disappointed that his son felt that his Father only deserved a pair of ten-cent socks in appreciation for all that he had done for his son.

A woman can be a loving, loyal, understanding, supportive, and encouraging and all around great wife and wonderful mother to her five teenage children but her husband can only focus on the twenty pound she has gained over the past fifteen years. The demon of non-appreciation has blinded him to the point that he cannot or will not appreciate all the positive attributes of his wife. The husband is so busy judging what he considers the negative aspects of his wife he cannot see the plank of hypocrisy represented by the bulging beer belly he has developed.

APPRECIATING GOD’S GIFTS

How do you show God your appreciation? When you give an offering on Sunday, do you give God a pair of “ten cent socks”?

You have heard the expression “twenty four – seven”, (24 hours /day, 7 days/week) but not many people stop to do the math that equals 168 hours in a seven-day week. If God, our Father, is gracious enough to bless you with another 168 hours to live a healthy life, what gift would you be willing to give in return? Would you give Him ten percent of the time he gave you? That would mean using 16.8 hours each week to serve and worship God. Truth is most of us have a difficult time spending even two hours on Sunday morning to attend church and honor God. Let’s do that math again; Tommy spent one dollar out of 75 to give his Dad a gift, that’s 1.3 percent of what his Dad blest him with. If we give two hours out of the 168 hours our Father blest us with that only equal 1.2 percent. Even Tommy is showing more appreciation then a lot of us Christians.  

Some families are blessed with wonderful, loving, helpful and obedient children. However, the children don’t always manage to get good grades in school even though they do make every effort to improve. But the parents only focus on the poor grades and never show the children any appreciation for the good things they do. The demon is busy setting the stage for trouble ahead.

God sends his life giving rain and many people only complain because it spoils their weekend plans. They never stop to consider that without rain we would not have the beauty of all the trees and plants that gives life to the earth. Truth is many people never really take the time to appreciate the beauty of nature. To these unfortunate people the beauty of nature is treated just like background noise, it’s there but they really never recognize it.

If you were unemployed and God provides you with a new job that’s not equal in pay or status to your old job, show your appreciation by thanking God for giving you a new job! If you show God you appreciate what he did for you he will do more for you. Keep God first and you will never be last!

Overcoming the habit of non-appreciation:

For myriad reasons many people cannot or do not, appreciate all the good things that happen in their lives. Sometimes this is because their hearts and minds have become harden by the hard knocks of life and they can only focus on the negative aspects of every circumstance. But with Christ in your life it’s easy to change to a positive outlook. Practice looking to see the good in everybody, everything and every situation, learn to appreciate and enhance that good. We may have to slow our pace a bit and get in step with the rhythm of our natural surroundings before we can begin to recognize Gods manifold blessings. Just remember, it took us many years to develop our blindness to God’s blessings and it will take some time to learn how to recognize and appreciate them again. As in all things we should go to God in prayer asking him to open our eyes and our minds that we may see and receive his many blessings. Then we must thank God and give him all the glory for his goodness. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I Th. 5:18 NIV.

If a person cannot or will not recognize and appreciate their own positive attributes it generally follows that they will not have much appreciation for anyone or anything else. Therefore, the first step in learning to appreciate your circumstances is learning to appreciate oneself. How do you feel about yourself? Is the demon of self-hate busy in your life? Sometimes we have to be our own booster club and give a shout out for the good things we do. Think positive thoughts about yourself. Don’t be vain but do focus on and recognize your positive qualities and achievements. If you are a Christian that means you are a child of God and that alone makes you a very special, loved and valuable person. Far too many Christians suffer from low esteem, depression and other maladies because they have lost focus and allowed themselves to wander away from their relationship with God. It’s at this point that Satan sends his demons to attacks with full fury. Our attitude become negative and we become callused and blind to the blessings around us recognizing none of them.

A CHRISTIAN WALK MINISTRIES

Reverend Matthew & Mrs. Deborah Harper

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