Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

“Hezekiah prayed for them: 'May the good Yahweh forgive those who have their hearts set on dedicating their lives to serving Elohim. May Yahweh Elohim of their ancestors do this for those who are not clean as required for the holy place.' Yahweh listened to Hezekiah and healed the people...

So the Israelites in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy... Then the whole assembly decided to celebrate the festival for seven more days. So they joyfully celebrated for seven more days... The city of Jerusalem was filled with joy. Nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the days of King Solomon of Israel."  (2 Chronicles 30:18b-21, 23,26)

Hezekiah was following God wholeheartedly and fully leading the people to do the same. 2 Chronicles 31:20 says that Hezekiah "did what was good and right and true to Yahweh his Elohim. Hezekiah incorporated Moses' teachings and commands into worship and dedicated his life to serving Elohim. Whatever he did for the worship in Elohim's temple, he did wholeheartedly, and he succeed."

The impact of Hezekiah's wholehearted service and calling the people into doing the same was powerful - Jerusalem was experienced tremendous revival.  God poured out generously upon the people and filled them with joy.

However, Hezekiah and the people, in the midst of God's blessing and their serving the Lord faithfully, still experienced difficulties. 2 Chronicles 32:1 says, "After everything Hezekiah had done so faithfully, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to invade Judah.  He set up camp to attack the fortified cities.  He intended to conquer them himself."

Being right in the middle of God's purposes does not mean that we will not have troubles. Often the greatest difficulties come on the heals of the greatest blessing and outpouring of God's Spirit.

Hezekiah did everything he could to be faithful in the midst of difficulty. He worked hard to protect the city by stopping water from flowing out to the springs outside the city, rebuilding broken sections of the wall, strengthening the city walls, making plenty of weapons and shields, and encouraging the troops.   Hezekiah, in his wholeheartedness, was diligent and conscientious to do his best at protecting his people.

And at the same time Sennacherib and his officers did the best they could to frighten and terrify the troops so they could take the city (2 Chronicles 32:18). But as Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out to God, He sent an angel to exterminate all the soldiers, officials and commanders in the Assyrian camp. Hezekiah didn't even need to fight, God fought for him. He and the people came out unscathed.

Out of all Hezekiah's success, he became famous and recognized by all the nations. 2 Chronicles 32:23 says, “Many people still went to Jerusalem to bring gifts to Yahweh and expensive presents to King Hezekiah of Judah. From then on, he was considered important by the nations.”

During this time God even blessed Hezekiah further by miraculously giving him his life (for 15 more years) when he prayed because he was about to die (2 Chronicles 32:24).

After serving God so faithfully and wholeheartedly, Hezekiah became conceited and lost his way. 2 Chronicles 32:25 says, “But Hezekiah was conceited, so he didn't repay Yahweh for his kindness.”

God tremendously overflowed generosity into Hezekiah's life in so many ways. But yet, rather than be deeply grateful, Hezekiah became proud. He began to believe the lies that others were telling him – that he was important and successful.

Hezekiah's greatest downfall was not staying in a place of gratitude, but rather moving into a place of getting his life from his successes. It was not the hardships that caused him to falter and lose his way. As uncomfortable and terrifying the threat of war was, this grew him in greater dependance upon God.

What cause Hezekiah to stumble was that he failed to stay grateful as he became successful. Because of this, he was no longer wholehearted for God.

Brother David Steindl-Rast notes that gratefulness is deeply connected with wholeheartedness. He writes, “Gratefulness is always wholehearted. Our whole person is connected in it.” He notes that gratefulness and halfheartnedness cannot go together. [1]

As Brother David Steindl-Rast acknowledges, when we receive something as a gift, we admit our dependance upon the giver. [2]

If Hezekiah would have stayed in the place of knowing all he was receiving was an undeserved gift, he would have stayed humble and dependent upon God. It would have grown him even deeper in his relationship with God.

When we feel we are somehow deserving, expect, or have earned God's blessings, we lose sight of gratitude. Pride and taking credit for God's work will make us grow hardhearted where staying in a place of humility and gratitude around undeserved blessings, we grow deeper.

It was evident in Hezekiah's prayers that his focus had changed on to himself and his sufficiency. When Hezekiah was about to die, he did not petition God on His infinite mercy and over abundant generosity. Rather, he petitioned God based upon his own works for God being somehow deserving.

In 2 Kings 20:2 he prayed, “Please, Yahweh, remember how I've lived faithfully and sincerely in your presence. I've done what you consider right.' And he cried bitterly.”

The big hint to something being wrong was the “I” in his sentences rather than “You”.

Whenever “I” is brought to the forefront, it is because our focus has turned from God to ourselves. We say, “I” am deserving... “I” was treated unfairly... Look at what 'I” have done. When we are in the place of focusing on ourselves, we will always expect or want more. We crave and are never satisfied.

The opposite is to focus on Him. “He” is worthy... “He” is generous.... “He” loves us and gives us everything we need. As we focus on Him, with every circumstance of blessing, our hearts cry out with gratefulness for His infinite mercy and goodness.

Gratitude has the opposite impact on us. As we do not feel deserving of all His blessings and our eyes are on Him, we find ourselves overflowing with thanks and contentment. We don't expect or think we deserve or have earned them.

Paul learned, not to just barely get by, but to be absolutely content in every circumstance – hunger or abundance. He was satisfied and did not feel in want for anything. He was content. He said the secret was that he could do all things through the one who gave Him strength (Philippians 4:13).

His eyes were continually on God and His goodness to him rather than on himself or his circumstances around Him. Paul's life was full to the extent he was content because he lived his life wholeheartedly for God with a sense of gratitude. In this place he could give his life away freely to those around him with the good news of the One who sustained him.

Gratitude keeps us from living stingy, small, suspicious lives of others or just going through the motions and taking the things around us for granted.

Hebrews 13:16 says, "Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship - a different kind of "sacrifice" - that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets."

When we are stingy and/or suspicious for instance(thinking of myself here), we are often thinking about what others are doing and what they deserve. We are looking at their performance. The reason we (I) do this is often because we are judging ourselves the same way. When we are blessed, we look for what we must have done to deserve it. And when we are not blessed, we again look to our performance.

When we are full of gratitude our whole perspective changes to one of undeserved blessing and wanting to give our lives away freely to others. We are not concerned if others are deserving or measure up because we know we could never be deserving or measure up to the blessings we have received.

Lord, forgive me for the so many ways I fall into performance and fail to live in the place of blessing. We long to live wholehearted lives that are given away freely to others. Would you fill us with gratitude for all You have done and are doing. Your generosity is amazing. Let us live our lives wholehearted for you.

1-2.  Steindl-Rast, Brother David.  Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness. Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey.  1984.