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Consider some thoughts from II Cor. 9:11-15.  Paul focuses on the contribution that he has been collecting for the poor saints and others in Judea.  He mentions four key concepts:  grace, gratitude, generosity and glorification of God.  As he develops each of these concepts, he defines a grateful heart.
A Grateful Heart is God-Centered
A grateful heart recognizes God as the ultimate source of every good and every perfect gift (James 1:17).  A grateful heart readily admits dependence upon God.  Ingratitude insists upon self-sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency.  God enriches us with a bounty of blessings.  His infinite goodness is freely manifested in the wonderful riches that He gives to us.  This includes both physical and spiritual blessings.  The chief gift that God gives is His Son (II Cor. 9:15).  Ingratitude breeds independence from God rather than dependence on God. Simply put, the ungrateful do not see their need of God.  However, they could not live even a single day without God.  Ingratitude shows a heart that has forgotten God.  This was the very thing that Moses warned Israel about in Deut. 8:6-20.
A Grateful Heart Is a Humble Heart
Those who despise God’s goodness manifest impenitence (Rom. 2:4-6).  Unbelief produces impenitence.  Impenitence is due to man’s pride.  Unbelief, impenitence and pride produce ingratitude.  Gratitude shows humility.  Humility leads to a recognition of the need for God and the redemption that He supplies through Jesus Christ.  Godly sorrow precedes repentance (II Cor. 7:10).  Repentance precedes reconciliation to God.  Through reconciliation to God we can stand in His divine favor (grace).
A Grateful Heart is a Devoted Heart
Thanksgiving to God is manifested in praise and prayer.  Praise and prayer are integral elements of our worship of God.  In praise and prayer, God is glorified.  Worship is an act of gratitude to God.  The ungrateful do not draw nigh to God.  They fail to see any connection between who they are and what they have acquired and God.
A Grateful Heart is a Generous Heart
Paul writes concerning “this ministration” i.e. the work of gathering a contribution to help the poor saints and others in Judea.  The church became a channel of blessing to others.  The generosity of the churches resulted in many thank to God and God was glorified.  Ingratitude robs God of the glory due His name.  Ingratitude leads to selfishness and others suffer because of the failure to show a generous spirit.
A Grateful Heart is a Compassionate Heart
A grateful heart is a warm heart.  A grateful heart is full of compassion.  A compassionate heart can be moved by the needs of others.  Ingratitude produces cold heartedness.   Remember Scrouge?  Scrouge was miserly, stingy, cold hearted and lonely.  His greed isolated him from others and produced a darkness in his soul.
The Greatest Gift
The greatest gift deserves the greatest thanks.  God gave His Son.  Jesus gave His life for us.  This spiritual windfall leaves us speechless.  “But thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”  Through God’s grace we are enriched unto all bountifulness.  God’s grace produces a grateful heart.  This is the heart of a Christian!

The Trinity Review, no. 337, September/October, 2016, pp. 1-2,contained an article by Thomas W. Juodaitis titled, Antichrist’s Ecumenical Endeavors, “Evangelical” Enablers, and the Evisceration of the Protestant Reformation. In this article, Juodaitis shows how the Roman Catholic church is working to take over the Ecumenical Movement with the aim of returning Protestantism to the mother church (Catholicism).  Juodaitis quotes from an article by Michael Day titled, Pope Francis Assures Atheists:  You Don’t Have to Believe in God to Go to Heaven (cited in The Independent, September 11, 2013).
The quote from Pope Francis was made in the context of answering questions posed to him.  In an open letter responding to questions published by Eugenio Scalfari, founder of La Repubblica, Francis wrote, “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith.  I start by saying–and this is the fundamental thing–that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to  him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience…Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”
Any proposition or doctrine can be proven to be false by showing that it contradicts a plain passage of Scripture.  Here are a few Scriptures to compare with the statement of Francis.
1.  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6.
2.  Jesus said, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).
3.  Jesus remarked, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
4.  In the Great Commission recorded in Mark, Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:16).
5.  In John 3:18, Jesus said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
6.  In John 3:36, John records, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Let God be true and every man a liar! (Rom. 3:4).

“As sure as eggs is eggs” is a phrase used to describe absolute certainty.  In formal logic and mathematics the formula “x is x” is used to describe complete certainty.  It is unclear how or when “x is x” became “eggs is eggs”, but it is known that Charles Dickens used the phrase “eggs is eggs” in The Pickwick Papers published in 1837.  Maybe Dickens was joking or playing on words or possibly it was a simple mistake that proved amusing enough to be left unchanged (Albert Jack, Red Herrings and White Elephants, pp. 35-36).
Can We Know Anything With Absolute Certainty?
-Do you exist?
-Do you know that you exist?
-Do you believe that you exist?
-Is there a difference between knowing and believing?
-Do you believe because you know or do you know because you believe?
In biblical terms, knowing precedes believing.  “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).  “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?  and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher” (Rom. 10:14).  Faith is taking God at His Word.  It is trust, conviction and confidence that comes by hearing and knowing the Word of God.  Heb. 11:1.  Faith means that we are fully persuaded of the truth.  Truth is that which conforms to reality as God defines reality.  If I can know surely, then I can believe without a doubt.
Words and Knowledge
Luke 1:1-4, “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”
The Words Known
Luke instructed Theophilus.  Luke wrote words that formed a body of knowledge that was rooted in historical reality (truth).  The body of knowledge is a body of truth.  Instruction involves teaching that body of truth to another human being who has to hear and understand it correctly and then that person can claim to know it.  Luke had meticulously traced out this body of knowledge.  He gleaned information from eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.  He had perfect understanding of all things from the very first which related to the life of Jesus Christ.  The word that he taught was verifiable.  Luke desired that Theophilus would know with certainty the body of truth concerning Jesus Christ.  The word know is epignosis which is a strengthened form of knowing.  The word certainty is asphaleian and means “not liable to fall, stedfast, firm, sure” (W. E. Vine).  It refers to knowledge that cannot be assailed or overthrown.  Certainty means that there is no doubt.  To know with certainty means that one cannot be wrong about the information.  Luke establishes the veracity of what he teaches or writes.
The Words Believed
In Luke 1:1, the phrase, “things most surely believed” comes from the Greek word peplerophoremenon, from plerophoreo which means “have had full course” or “having been fully borne out” (W. E. Vine, I, 117).  Fully proved and so fully believed.  The Greek word contains the idea that there is certainty with regard to the evidence known.  Faith follows knowledge.  Faith is a firm persuasion that God’s Word is reliable and trustworthy.  Luke removes all doubt about the content of the message that he is writing about.  The message is true.  The knowledge is certain.  Therefore, the faith can be full, complete and lacking nothing.  God never asks us to believe in some fact or doctrine for which He has not given us adequate evidence.  Consequently, the leap of faith notion is false.  Faith is grounded in truth.
I can know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and I can know it as much as I know that “eggs is eggs.”  I can know that God exists and I can know it as much as I know that “eggs is eggs.”  I can know that the Bible is the Word of God and I can know it as much as I know that “eggs is eggs.”  I can know the truth.  I can believe the truth.  I can obey the truth (John 3:21). I can know, believe and obey the truth to the salvation of my soul (John 8:31-32).