The Wrong Thanksgiving

I always teach and preach about being thankful to God. Thankfulness makes you a better person, unleashes the blessings, and pleases God. However, I discovered today in the Word of God that there is such thing as - a wrong thanksgiving.


Check this out.


A Pharisee prayed to God this prayer recorded in Luke 18: 10-11 - 


   "O God, I THANK YOU I am not like other people-
   extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican beside me.
    I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess."


This is the wrong thanksgiving you can say in your life.

A wrong thanksgiving is - 


   - thanking God by exalting yourself.
   - thanking God by bragging yourself compared to others.
   - thanking God by belittling others.
   - thanking God by showcasing your self-righteousness.
   - thanking God by boasting how good you are.


When we thank God how good our church is compared to others,
when we thank God how good we are compared to others,
when we thank God how how "deep" we are compared to others.
when we thank God how "different" we are compared to others.


- these are the thanksgivings which God don't want to hear from us.
There is a big difference between "Praise-Thanksgiving" from "Pharisee-Thanksgiving."


Compared to the Publican who is also praying beside the Pharisee, he smote his chest knowing how sinful he was and prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went justified rather than the other." The prayer of the Publican is the right and authentic thanksgiving.


A thanksgiving that is not exalting self but God.
A thanksgiving that is not bragging one's self.
A thanksgiving that is not belittling others.
A thanksgiving that is not exalting one's self-righteousness.
A thanksgiving that is not showcasing how good you are.


 - A r t  R o y  R e m y

radical truths:

"Don't change the praise, "God is good" to "I am good."

We are called to thank God of how blessed we are but not how good we are. Jesus said in the sermon of the mount, "Blessed is the man" and not "Good is the man," because being blessed is recognizing that there is a Blessor and we are all but recipients of that blessing.

"Blessed man" is based in relationship with God. "Good man" is based in religion. Jesus changed this thinking when he taught, "there is no one good but God." The famous verse said it all, "there is none that do good, no not one." So, be thankful of how blessed you are and not how good you are.