The "Oxygen" and "Poison" of Gratitude

   In a 2019 book, Os Guinness makes the observation that gratitude is “foundational to . . . trust in and allegiance to God, and memory is gratitude’s oxygen just as forgetfulness is its poison” (92). Scripture implies that forgetfulness will poison thanksgiving while positive remembrance will keep it alive. Moses reminded Israel of this in the following: 

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. . . . Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth. . . . And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-20, ESV) 

   The forgetfulness and resultant ingratitude, concerning which Moses had warned Israel, did occur, and one period of its occurrence is described by the prophet Hosea. He wrote, “. . .[T]hey became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me [God]” (Hosea 13:6). The people to whom Hosea preached did exactly as Moses had warned their forefathers not to do. They became “full” (Deuteronomy 8:12) and their “heart [was] lifted up” and they forgot the Lord God (Deuteronomy 8:14). Although they had the advantage of special revelation from God in the form of the oracles of God (cf. Romans 3:1-2), their practice was not unlike other nations (cf. Romans 1:20; Acts 14:15-17). What Paul wrote concerning other nations and their response to the general revelation of God in creation also describes the nation of Israel to whom Hosea prophesied eight centuries before Christ. “. . . Although they knew God they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful . . .” (Romans 1:25, NKJV; cf. Hosea 13:6). Hosea wrote, “According to their pasture . . . so were they filled . . . .” The pasturage refers to their economic prosperity. The provisions and prosperity from God became the occasion for their basic problem. Butler explains:

 Their trouble was pride. They did exactly what Moses warned them not to do (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). When they became affluent, they did like so many other nations have done, and like America is doing today, they lifted up their hearts in pride and said, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” Pride, whether it is military pride, political pride, affluent pride, or intellectual pride, causes men willfully to ignore the facts of history (2 Peter 3:3-7). Pseudoscientists, proud of their intellectualism, proud of their erudition, or their religious heritage, will deliberately ignore the historical, textual integrity of the Bible and substitute [false] theology and philosophy for the Word of God. Pride is the trap that snared the devil, snared Eve, and then Adam, and snares many millions today. (570)

   Not only was it the case they exalted themselves, but they forgot God. The two go hand in hand. The one leads to the other. Coffman asked, “Why is it such a sin to forget God?” He answered:

 First, it is a denial of the very reason for man’s being created by the Father, i.e., that of glorifying God; and if a man is not going to do the principal thing for which God created him, he is no better than a dog, and has become a thing of no cosmic value whatever. Man apart from his relation to God has the same eternal status as a bushel of turnips, a shovel full of coal, or any of the lower animals of nature. Secondly, forgetting God, is a mark of the basest ingratitude. It is always deplorable to see men forget friends from whose hands they received benefit and encouragement in the race of life; but what about God remembered not? . . . [F]orgetting God is an irrevocable mistake, the fatal blunder, the mortal error from which there is no recovery: for God will remember and punish wicked men whether they remember him or not. (212-13)

 From the midst of what he called the awful calamity of civil war, Abraham Lincoln issued in 1863 a proclamation of thanksgiving. The very principle for this proclamation is couched in the ancient warning given by God to Israel. It is summed up in the following words from this great American President:

 [W]e have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient . . . too proud to pray to the God that made us! (qtd. in Federer 383-84)

    Moses was correct. “[I]f you forget the Lord your God . . . you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish . . .” (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). What was true then is true now: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord . . .” (Psalm 33:12). Nations will be blessed when they acknowledge and give thanks to the One true God revealed in creation and in divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures (the Bible). However, “all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17) will perish.

   In the opening words of his acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize in 1983, the late Russian novelist and short story writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), said: “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this happened.”

   America, are you listening? Guinness is on target in his book. Gratitude is foundational to trust in and allegiance to God. Remembering God is gratitude’s oxygen, and forgetting God is its poison.

 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. . . . (Hebrews 13:7-8, ESV)
Therefore, by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15, NKJV)

Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director

Works Cited:

Butler, Paul T. Minor Prophets. Joplin: College, 1968.

Coffman, James Burton. Commentary on the Minor Prophets Hosea, Obadiah and Micah. Vol. 2. Austin: Firm Foundation, 1981.

Federer, William J. America’s God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations. St. Louis: Federer, 2000.

Guinness, Os. Carpe Diem Redeemed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2019.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. “Men Have Forgotten God.” Pravoslavie.ru 18 July 2011. Web. 19 July 2018.