You’ve probably heard, just like me, that gratitude is good for ourselves. But, the question, how so? And, when it comes to showing gratitude, does that also include the ones who have done harm to us?

I understand how difficult that may be. At the same time though, being thankful for all people in our lives isn’t something that changes others, but us.

[bctt tweet=”Choosing to be grateful for everyone you’ve encountered in life, you’ll find out that your life will never be the same again.” username=””]

First, let’s take a look at Ephesians 2: 18-20,

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. ESV.

There are three things Paul talks about here:

• • • Through Jesus Christ, we have access to the Father (verse 18).
    • Through Jesus Christ, we are fellow citizens with the saints and are members of God’s family (verse 19).
    • Jesus Christ becomes the cornerstone (verse 20).

 

Be thankful for Jesus Christ

 

Jesus wants us to be thankful because of him. Two things about that have to do with who Jesus is: Son of Man and Son of God.

Jesus as the Son of Man implies his humanity. He was born just like all of us. He went through everything people go through, including death.

However, Jesus is unlike us all for the fact that he did not stay dead. As he had promised the disciples, he rose from the dead. He didn’t stop there. After spending a few days with the disciples, Jesus ascended into heaven.

Who can do something like that? Have you ever heard of any human who rises from the dead on the day he has promised he will?

 

There is humanity in every person

 

To me, Jesus came to reconcile our two states of being: human and divine. Ok, let me elaborate more on that.

Read 1 Corinthians 15: 45-47,

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. ESV.

Notice that Paul is talking about two kinds of “Adam’s” in the text. The first one is a “living being,” and the second is a life-giving spirit.”

Do you see the difference between the two “Adam’s?”

 

The first Adam has to do with our humanity

 

It is what we became after the fall into sin (see Genesis 3). The harmony, balance, and order, which existed before, we, humans, because of sin, lost it all.

What was to be organic and natural, now it has become something we have to learn every day.

Look around. Who lives in perfect harmony? Who can claim they have absolute balance and order in their life?

That’s what came with the first Adam: humanity and everything else that challenges God’s harmony, order and balance God destined us to experience in the first place.

 

The second Adam has to do with the life-giving spirit we receive through faith in Christ

 

Being life-giving is something that we lost as a result of sin. It’s also something we can acquire today by faith in Christ.

That’s the reason why Jesus came to this world. His death and resurrection are the keys for us to claim this state of being for ourselves.

And, God can give it to us through Jesus Christ, the second Adam.

God made every human being with the ability to be both a living being and a life-giving spirit!

As I stated above, the first one is who we all are and can only lose when we die. That’s our humanity meaning we are living souls. We have feelings and emotions.

In other words, we can get angry, be sad, etc.

What you go through, someone else someplace may even experience worse than what you’re facing right now!

[bctt tweet=”So, learning to be thankful for others is to allow people in your life be humans. And, while you accept them as they are, you pray that they can also become life-giving.” username=””]

You are grateful that Christ is at work in their lives, just as He has been in yours!

 

Being grateful for others changes you

 

Here’s how being thankful for others can change you. First, it helps you acknowledge that we are all humans and prone to doing evil or sinning against God.

You understand that we all carry a piece of the first Adam with us wherever we go. In other words, it may happen that we offend each other, one way or another.

Yes, we are all sinners (evil-doers) whether we like it or not (Romans 3: 23).

You need to do what Jesus has done for us all.

Read again Ephesians 2: 18-20. What Paul says in the text that Jesus is doing for us, now you and I can do it for others.

In other words, after making Jesus the cornerstone of your life, now having constant access to the Father (God), and belonging to a community of believers, you need to do the same for somebody else.

• • • Help somebody embrace their humanity (sinfulness) and acknowledge they need Christ to have full access to the Father (God) who will establish harmony, order, and balance in their lives.
    • Help somebody connect with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
    • Help somebody make Jesus Christ the cornerstone of their lives.
    • Help them join a community of believers, a group of faithful and true brothers and sisters in Christ.

Your turn now

Make it the goals that you have to work toward every single day. Ask God to equip you with words, and ways to do God’s will daily.