32 When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. 33 He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35 Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36 Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!”
Have you ever been overwhelmed with gratitude? In 2nd Kings 4:32-36 the woman from Shunem experienced a blessing so great that she became overwhelmed with gratitude. You see. her young son had died, and she went to Elisha for help. With God’s power working through Elisha, he was able to bring her son back to life. Witnessing something like that firsthand, I am sure would not only be amazing, but it would cause the gratitude meter to go way up.
We certainly don’t have to experience anything that profound to become overwhelmed with gratitude. You may be able to recall on more than one occasion, how God’s goodness to you, brought tears to your eyes because you were so grateful.
When my daughter was twelve years old, she was selected to travel abroad to Europe with several other students from our part of the state. This was a huge honor for her. My husband and I were so excited for her to have this opportunity to travel and see and experience parts of the world that she had never seen before. We knew that it would be an education in itself.
This experience, however, would come with a huge price tag of $7000. At that time my husband and we were struggling financially. We didn’t know how we would pay for our daughter to go on this once in a lifetime trip. We just knew that we wanted this dream to come true for her. We started to move in faith, believing that it would happen. She was so excited and determined to go, that we could not stand to see her get disappointed.
During those years my daughter loved making jewelry from beads. She had also learned how to make colorful bracelets from small rubber bands. Teenagers absolutely loved them, and a lot of the kids at her school were wearing these bracelets during that time. We stocked her up on beads and rubber bands of every color. We went to a local dress shop here in our town, and the owner loved her jewelry so much, that she let her put her pieces in her shop. In no time her items sold out and she was able to bring more items in. The owner of the shop knew that her goal was to get to Europe, so she continued to order from her. Her sales however were only a drop in the bucket compared to how much she needed within a limited amount of time.
My husband and I decided that we needed to do some type of fundraising to help her with this goal, so we sent letters out to all of our friends and relatives, asking them to please support her goal. We could not believe the response. Everyone that knew her was so excited to help support this goal.
I remember us being so close to wrapping things up, but we still needed a lot more money than my husband and I had personally that we could give. We were stuck not knowing where the funds would come from, but still believing someway, somehow it would all come together.
One Sunday after church my daughter and I were about to leave the church parking lot, when one of our church members came up to my car door. When I let my window down to see what she needed, she said that she and her husband wanted to give towards my daughter’s trip. She then handed me a check for $500.
I instantly burst into tears. It was more than I could have ever imagined. I was literally overwhelmed with gratitude at that very moment, and uncontrollably so. And it didn’t stop there. Out of nowhere a friend gave me a check for $250. and said, if you don’t reach the goal by your deadline, let me know and I will give more. And if that wasn’t enough, my husband got a call from a gentleman that had already given a sizable amount, who told him the same thing. We did not have to call either person back, because the goal had been reached. God had provided, and boy were we ever thankful for His goodness towards us!
I have three thoughts on why we become overwhelmed with gratitude.
- Sometimes we pray for things not knowing whether or not God will give us what we are asking Him for. When He says yes to our request, in some cases we are so surprised that we become overwhelmed with gratitude. Remember we should ask, believing that what we are asking for is already done.
- There are times that we have a need so great, that when God meets that need for us we are overwhelmed with gratitude.
- When God blesses us, just because we are His children. This can also come as a surprise and cause us to be overcome with gratitude.
- During our quiet time, or time of worship when we sincerely praise God for who He is, we can become overwhelmed with gratitude.
Gratitude is simply an expression of our hearts, saying thank you God for your unwavering kindness towards us.1 Samuel 12:2424 But be sure to fear the Lord and faithfully serve him. Think of all the wonderful things he has done for you.
