Derek Prince - The Slippery Path of Being Unthankful
This excerpt is from: Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship
Now we need to look at the rather dark other side to this truth, which is the opposite of being thankful, what the Bible has to say about that. And it has a great deal to say about unthankfulness. I'll just point out to you what to me are very, very significant statements in scripture. In Romans 1, Paul, in a most masterly way, outlines the decline of the human race... from the knowledge of God into the most appalling wickedness and sinfulness. And Romans 1 ends with one of the most horrible lists in the Bible... of human degradation, misery and wickedness. We could ask ourselves: How is it that humanity declined into that? And, the answer is given in Romans 1 in verse 21. It says there: Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. Those are the first two downward steps of humanity... into that dark pit that's the end of the chapter.
What are the two steps? They're both negative. They didn't glorify Him as God and they were not thankful. I want to tell you that every time we cease to be thankful, we're starting on a downward, slippery path. It's very dangerous. Don't even start on the path. Because it's hard to turn around and make your way back up again. Again, in 2 Timothy 3, we have another fearful list. It's interesting to compare Romans 1 and 2 Timothy 3. Romans 1 is what I would call the logical outworking. 2 Timothy 3 is the historical outworking. What is humanity going to be like in the last days at the close of this age? And here we have this picture, beginning in verse 1 of 2 Timothy 3: But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come... What will bring the perilous times? The decline of human character. 'for men will be lovers of themselves,' That's the root of the whole problem. 'lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.'
You see where unthankfulness finds its place in the list? Next to the unholy. I have to say, to be unthankful is to be unholy. You cannot be holy and unthankful. If you are thankful, it's a very great help to being holy. What's the opposite of being thankful? What kind of conduct is the opposite? You could give a lot of different words but I think the Bible word is 'murmuring'. Or, in more modern English, 'complaining'. I want to suggest to you, basically, if we're going to say anything, it's going to be either positive or negative. There's very little in words which is neutral. So if we are not thankful, we will almost certainly end up being murmurers and complainers. Don't by any means give any indication, but how many of you live with complaining people? One lady raised her hand, she just couldn't keep it down. I think you'll agree it's miserable. Don't be that kind of a person.
Let's look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:10. He's warning Christians against falling into the same errors... that Israel fell into after they were delivered out of Egypt. He says in verse 7: 'Do not become idolaters, as were some of them.' Verse 8: 'Do not commit sexual immorality.' Verse 9: 'Let us not tempt Christ our Messiah.' And then he says in verse 10: 'Let us not murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.'
There are many examples of this, but if you look in Numbers 21, Israel became discouraged or impatient because of the long, wearisome journey. They began to murmur against God and against Moses. God sent fiery serpents amongst them, and they began to bite the people, and they began to die. So amongst other things, it just doesn't pay to murmur... because it exposes you to fiery serpents. Not necessarily physical serpents. But all sorts of poison enters you through murmuring, through unthankfulness. So we're really faced with these two opposite possibilities: being thankful or being murmurers. Make up your mind, set your will: I'm going to be thankful. I'm going to find the scriptural basis for thankfulness. I'm going to find the scriptural reasons for being thankful. And I'm going to practice thanking God all the time.