IGT

Ungratefulness and the Suffering Savior

Even as adults, we often times behave just like ungrateful, insolent, bratty children. Just as children who have been given so many unappreciated gifts by their parents, all we can do is complain about all that we have not received. We always seem to want more and more and are never happy until we scream loud enough in order to get what we want. Ungrateful children do not care if the parents have given all that they have. They don’t care that their parents have literally given their very lives for them. If they don’t get what they want at any given time, they complain that their lives are ruined and that the parents really don’t care about them. They even resort to guilt and scare tactics by threatening to just write their parents out of their lives because of it.

We, as adults, behave just like that at times with our Father God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How many times have I seen professing Christians saying that they are disillusioned with God because their lives are less than perfect. Since they don’t have all of the amenities of others or they are experiencing heartache and pain then why not just blame God. They say, “If He is who everyone says He is, then He should be giving me everything I want - a car, great paying job, loving family with no fighting, no temptations, constant happiness, perpetual joy. It’s God’s fault I don’t have these things so what’s the use in trusting and believing in Him? Really, what has He ever done or is doing for me?”

My response to these that are so ungrateful should be, “He personally endured all of my pain, agony, suffering, abandonment, betrayal and judgment. He died a death that I deserved - not Him. He could have called a legion of angels to rescue Him from the torture, yet, He chose to endure it all for me. Every bruise and cut He received was supposed to be mine, not His. The terrors of torture, death and Hell should never have touched this kind innocent man, but the God that He was endured it just for me. He died alone, cut off from all men and the Father God in Heaven, enduring this horrific punishment just for me. Am I still to be so insolent as to say, “What has He ever done for me?” How can I accuse Him of not giving me enough when He gave everything for me - His life that He never deserved, His punishment that He never deserved, His death that He never deserved. His life paid the price of all of my iniquities, and yet, I still ask for more. Do I love Him or do I just love what I can get from Him? His love was perfect in that He chose to die for me.” Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

Our actions, even as adults, do not always reflect a true heartfelt gratefulness to God, to Jesus or to the Spirit that lives in us. In gratefulness for all that He has done for me I humbly pray, “Lord Jesus forgive me for treating the amazing gift that you have already given to me, eternal life, as something less than truly exceptional. Forgive me for demanding any more than the love that you have already shown to me by dying for me on that cross. Thank you for all that you have done for truly my life is in your hands.” For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate (Hebrews 13:12).

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day (Matthew 16:21).

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again (Matthew 20:18-19).

For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again (Luke 18:32-33).

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:1).

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