Do you take time to think thankfully about those who have gone before you? What does your hall of faith look like?
Do you want to know God better? Do you want to become more thankful? According to the Bible, the answer is simple: study.
Psalm 111 puts it clearly: a) worship God with thankfulness, b) study his works, and c) follow God’s words if you want to know God and find wisdom and understanding.
Does gratitude ever feel like a panacea or unachievable? Are we giving thankfulness too much credit?
The benefits of gratitude abound. It increases our faith and resilience. Thankfulness leads to stronger relationships and health. Grateful people experience greater joy and handle life’s problems more easily.
Biologically we can observe how gratefulness rewires our brain releasing chemicals that make us feel better and allow blood to flow more easily which frees us to think more creatively and clearly. And when we choose to think gratefully every day, the reticular activator reinforces those things we choose to think about.
So physical, spiritual, and relational benefits abound. But there is a dark side of gratitude we don’t like to think about.
Do you love waiting in line? How about waiting on God’s timing?
Our culture drives us to get results. Yesterday. We look for ways to speed up and become more efficient. We’re impatient when someone makes us wait or slow down.
So it makes sense that we grow impatient in our pursuit of becoming more grateful.
Do you ever take time to look back at answered prayers? How does God’s past faithfulness fuel your present gratefulness?
Early in my career, I traveled for three months visiting college campuses and churches to encourage and inspire them in their missionary service. We saw God move in powerful ways.
Once a week our team of four sat down for an hour and thanked God for ways he moved during the previous week. One of us would write down as many of these items as possible in our team journal. At the end of three months, we had a journal full of thanksgiving and it inspired all of our faith to see the names of people God had touched and ways God provided for us.
When God answers your prayers, how do you respond?
Which comes first: generosity or gratitude? Do you find it easier to be grateful or generous?
It’s probably like the chicken and egg debate. In this case, they both flow from love and that love produces abundant joy which results in generosity and gratitude.
I like to summarize it like this: Radical generosity in response to generous grace results in abundant gratitude and joy.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul commends the Macedonian church for their rich generosity. His words help us see at least seven ways to become more intentionally generous and how that can reinforce gratitude in our lives.
Have you made big plans that turned into an even bigger disappointment? How do you remain hopeful when things don’t go as you desired?
If this hasn’t happened to you, yet, I’m sure you’ve seen it happen many times over.
What shattered dreams do you have? Did you plan to be married by now? Were you expecting to have made partner already? Have you let your kids down again because you couldn’t take them on a dream vacation? Is your marriage less than what you hoped?
Here are 4 ways to turn disappointment into gratitude.
Do you love the city where you live? Or do you merely tolerate it or even despise it?
How about your neighborhood or your house?
Jeremiah wrote to the people of Judah as they went into exile for 70 years. Instead of constantly pining for home, he told them: “Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” Jer 29:7 NLT
He acknowledges they may feel like foreigners and don’t belong, but they can decide whether to make this their home and work for its prosperity. It’s emotionally and psychologically impossible to work for peace and remain resentful. Gratitude can replace hatred and discontent through a series of conscious choices.
Have you ever experienced times of trouble to the point where it felt like you couldn’t move on? Perhaps you’ve been on the verge of death or known someone who is?
How do your prayers change in these seasons? What if your prayers had that same sense of desperation all the time? Do your prayers stay stuck in the mire or do you end in praise and thanksgiving?
Psalm 116 is one of the most personal psalms and it reveals some important insights into how to pray and how to respond gratefully to God’s initiative.
Do you struggle with jealousy or envy? How do you help your children overcome these temptations?
Jealousy rears its ugly head at the most inopportune times.
The Book of Proverbs teaches, “Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?”
James addressed this in his letter and provides four ways to overcome jealousy.
Have you ever faced a battle or challenge in your life that seemed insurmountable? How did that make you feel? I suspect you didn’t list gratitude among your feelings.
Researcher Robert Emmons acknowledges the difference between feeling grateful and being grateful. We can’t easily affect our feelings in the face of depression, economic challenges, or relational conflict. We can, however, choose to be grateful which allows us to gain perspective and maintain resilience in the midst of whatever battle we face.
Here are 6 ways to be grateful in battle...
Did you know Jesus intercedes for you? Right now? Constantly.
Perhaps you need to be reminded of this today. Here are five things Jesus prays for you, as revealed in his prayer in John 17, with a short prayer of thanks in response.
Does thankful thinking come naturally for you? Or do you find it easier to be negative, critical, or jealous?
I’ve discovered my ability to think thankfully directly relates to how deeply I think.
Which is easier to teach your children: entitlement or gratitude? Which is easier for you?
According to some scholars, we live in the Age of Entitlement. Author Randy Alcorn observed, however, that we’ve merely perfected the art of entitlement. The people of Israel first demonstrated entitlement on scale as they left Egypt into the 40 years of wandering.
As we earlier discussed, reciprocity and selfishness oppose gratitude. Entitlement must be combatted to make room in our minds and hearts for thankfulness to prevail.
How many bibles do you have in your house? How many of them do you actively read? I encourage you to count how many copies of scripture you own at some point soon.
If you’re like me, there’s a story behind each of the bibles. One I received from my parents, another upon graduation, another while I was in seminary, and another from a church I served.
Have you ever thanked the people who gave you each bible you own? How about the people who gave you a love for scripture?
Today, I want to focus on 4 ways we can express thanks for how God’s word shapes our lives.
When you look at the mirror do you like who you see? Or do you count the things you don’t like? Do you wish you could be fully known and fully loved? God knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us beyond our imagination.
When I believe this, it leads me to greater levels of thankfulness. When I don’t believe this, I find myself bitter, angry, and resentful.
Do you feel like gratitude is a habit? Or does it feel unnatural? I believe you can create momentum through a series of intentional choices.
Here’s a test: when you face anxiety-producing circumstances how do you respond? Does it keep you awake at night? Do your dreams turn negative and reinforce the anxiety? Or do you find ways to be thankful in prayer?
I recently had several anxiety-producing events occur within a short period of time. I’ll confess that it disrupted my sleep and my dreams turned negative and agitated.
So I decided I would put gratitude to the test. Here are five things I learned. Most of them are common sense. They also form a fun acronym of MOPED. Designed to get you moving!
Do you enjoy the tastes and smells of a delicious meal? How about the sights and sounds of a beautiful sunset? Scripture calls us to taste and see that the Lord is good, but I think all five of our senses can lead us to greater thankfulness.
Do you ever find yourself bored or stuck in the daily grind of life? Does it feel difficult to give thanks when life feels monotonous and uneventful?
Today we are we will explore 5 ways to give thanks in the daily grind.
What do you think is the opposite of gratitude? Do you think it’s ingratitude?
I think I’ve been getting it all wrong. Just yesterday on Day 23 I suggested that reciprocity might be the greatest enemy of thankfulness.
Then I spoke with a counselor friend of mine. We talked about the root system of sin in our lives and how we tend to just pull off the leaves and leave the roots untouched.
If you have an area of sin in your life that’s affected you for years or decades, it’s likely there’s a deep root system with many emotions connected to it. Gardners know it’s hard work to unroot noxious weeds. How much more so, the noxious sin patterns in our lives?!
When you receive a gift do you feel compelled to reciprocate? When you give a gift do you also expect something in return? If we’re honest, reciprocity can undermine our gratefulness.
Today we are studying why reciprocity might actually be the enemy of gratitude.
Ever wake up and just want to roll back over? Being thankful seems like the last thing on your mind when you’re lying sick in bed or overwhelmed by the circumstances of life.
But that’s exactly when we need to be thankful.
Top Ten Reasons to be Thankful (even if you don’t feel like it)
Have you ever been wrongly accused? Perhaps you’ve felt misunderstood or misjudged? I certainly have.
How do we move from feeling mistreated to expressing gratefulness? Let’s watch how that happens for David in Psalm 7.
Are you thankful for your family? Even when they’re imperfect?
If we’re honest, families provide a mixed bag of blessings, negative memories, and curses. How are we supposed to be thankful for those who caused deep hurt in our lives?
I believe it’s possible to be deeply thankful for all the blessings of our families while remaining honest about the painful memories and even the ongoing hurt caused by our families.
Do you remember your day of salvation? Has it become a faded memory or does it seem like yesterday?
In reflecting on the power of the gospel, we can find many reasons to be grateful. Today, I want to look specifically at the day God saved us.