The Attitude of Gratitude
A Family Devotional for Thanksgiving
The dictionary defines gratitude as the state of being grateful or thankful. Gratitude is an ongoing, grateful attitude that has the ability to alter your perspective on life in a positive way. As Christians, our gratitude should be first and foremost directed towards God because He has been so kind and generous to us. Psalms 9:1-2 says, "I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." There are many reasons and benefits to being grateful and it may be why the Bible talks a lot about giving thanks. Here are three (of many) benefits gratitude has in your life:
Gratitude increases your spiritual vision. Thanking God on a daily basis for His provision and all He is for us increases our ability to see more. We’ll quickly discover that God's provisions and blessings have always been there, our hearts just needed to catch up. We do it all the time…we take for granted all the good people and blessings we have in our lives. What’s interesting is, the more we focus on all the good we have the more misfortunes seem to not matter. Gratitude gives you a fresh vision and perspective. When we were in the middle of COVID 19 lockdowns my wife and I did a spontaneous and quick reflection of the blessings we received in the months of March, April, and May. We couldn’t believe how many financial blessings and gifts came our way and even to the church. It was like God had opened a window from heaven and just started pouring out gifts. As you can imagine, this was a refreshing perspective to have during such a challenging time. I realize now why we even noticed it all. The quarantine in our homes interrupted our busy lives for a moment and made us slow down. While I was still pretty busy as a pastor, there was a new schedule that caused me to see things I had not noticed before. Gratitude needs to take place in the seasons of rest or in the season of busyness that we all seem to be living in. If we practice gratitude we may even slow down in life instead of chasing…more (more of everything) and see Jesus is everything. As you start to thank God more and more, you’ll SEE even more to be thankful for!
Gratitude can save you money. Who doesn’t want to save more money? When you make it a habit to thank God for what you do have, you focus less on what you don’t have. To be content is to be comfortable and happy with what you have rather than craving more. Gratitude produces contentment. G. K. Chesterton once said, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desires less.” Which one do you think will be more expensive? The point G.K. is making is if we can tame our hearts from desiring less we will certainly save money and even be more generous. Beware of your desires, Proverbs 27:20 says, “Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.” Alone or with your family make a list of all the blessings and things you have. Go through your kid’s rooms and dust off some old toys to play with again. Practice thanking God for all that you already have. Increase your contentment and your checking account by giving thanks.
Gratitude increases peace. We need peace more than ever right now. This year has been very tense. The apostle Paul made a powerful and true statement that has injected peace into the hearts of Christians for centuries… “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 6-7 It appears that Paul practically gives a recipe for acquiring peace and you guessed it, gratitude is a major ingredient. You can’t really add anything else to that list. It’s plain and simple: Don’t worry + tell God what you need + thank God for everything = peace. What I have discovered is a grateful attitude has the ability to see past discouraging and difficult circumstances and still be joyful. It can take some time to experience that peace in the midst of trials but keep practicing what the scripture instructs. Make it a point to pray whenever you worry. Give God thanks each day for all He has done from your salvation to His ongoing provision. Peace will increase as we exchange our worries with thanksgiving to God!
I pray we grow in our practice of gratitude and may you have a blessed Thanksgiving!
-Pastor Ryan
Discuss:
Which one of these benefits stuck out to you the most and why?
Who or what have you taken for granted in the past year?
Who are you are thankful?
What (blessings, talent, health) are you thankful for?
What will you do to be more grateful each day?