When you win, and others know that you’ve won, even in the odd case like they claim your election was stolen, there’s that feel-good feeling. You’re on top of the world, except of course, if you’re one of those whose fear of winning has a crippling effect on you.
And when like David, you’re delivered from multiple attempts to get you, you are in the same kind of place like the wrongly accused who’s been acquitted, or the maligned one who’d been targeted by lies of all sorts, and then the bomb drops and the all lies are uncovered- one by one, from the first to the last, like the domino effect- and your accusers have to run and hide.
Who would have trouble giving thanks at such a time at this?
And yet, so many forget. It might be true that in every band of ten healed lepers, only one remembers to give thanks. I haven’t healed any lepers yet. No such glory to my name! But I can’t tell you how often I’ve been taken of out of my comfort zone to help someone whom I didn’t even know, doing things for that person that I wouldn’t normally do for those in my charge- since I prefer to enable a person to stand on her own! Someone asks me, “Please, for my sake, help him out”. And when I’ve done the ‘helping out’ that’s the end of the story.
- Do it for goodness’ sake, not for reward. I know. I preach that. I teach that. I remind people to just try and do good for Goodness’ sake. That’s our mission.
But it does sort of jab me and tempt me to think about being less generous the next time around when it comes to sharing my time, skills and material resources, and not even being surprised with a thank you! Still do good anyway, because the one you deprive of your assistance might just be the one who will join David and say,
“1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised”.
As I said, when you’re on top of the world, it ought to be relatively easy to give thanks to God (even though many don’t) so that when you’re in distress the next time around, you remember Who to call for help- the Invincible I Am. who’ll deliver you in the day of your calamity.
You may not even have the claim to fame like the psalmist who wrote,
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness.
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
24 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
If everything I put in bold type frightens you and makes you feel as if you don’t qualify, because too often, like me, you behave like the nine tenth of cleansed lepers and do not invest yourself in giving thanks,
Then start now. Start with the blessings you experienced today. Don’t wait for others’ multiple attempts to get you. You might be such a nice person that nobody at all wants to harm you. Or you might be such a snake that you force others to pray that ‘the Most High utter his voice and send out his arrows and make minced meat of you or flash forth lightnings to rout you’ (verses 13-14). In this latter case, thank God that you’ve survived these evil ways and arrived at the point where you can claim a second chance. Start now. Do it now before another opportunity presents itself for you to be the enemy whom God will destroy. And you don’t want that. Do you?