With Thanksgiving only 2
weeks away (hasn’t the year just flown
by?), and being on the tail end (of a
very long tail, I might add) of a very busy season, I have found myself
thinking about gratitude. I would love
to tell you that it’s because my heart has been filled to overflowing with a
cornucopia of blessing and thanksgiving, but really it’s been more around the
lack of remembering how much there is to be thankful for. My mind only has so much space and when I’m running
at an unsustainable pace (did I just
admit to not being able to keep up with my life?), things like thanking God
for His daily provisions don’t have ‘sticking power’ in my cranium! And yet I can recite the lyrics of almost any
pop song from the 80’s…how is that possible on the scale of what’s most
important in life? Right now, I am in a
perfect place for cultivating an attitude of gratitude. Maybe it’s like working out – you have to do
it on a regular basis as a part of an overall plan to get and remain
healthy. And when we don’t? Our overall health and effectiveness is
diminished.
The Psalmists seem to have
understood how vital gratitude was:
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart…” (9:1)
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name…” (105:1)
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love
endures forever,” (106:1 & 107:1)
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His gracious
love is eternal.” (118:1)
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His
gracious love is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, for His
gracious love is everlasting. Give
thanks to the Lord of lords, for His gracious love is everlasting.” (Psalm
136:1-3)
It is as if the greatest
priority, the one thing that we must begin with, the thing that all other
things come after…is a thankful heart that sees God as good, gracious, and
generous.
So how do we do that? How do
we keep that in the forefront of our minds during the craziness of the
holidays, the busyness of our lives, and the flurry of activity that our days
consist of? I think there’s lots of
ways, but let’s just go with three simple suggestions:
Maybe one of the first things
we can do is to pause at some point during the day and say, “thank you, Father, for….” and you fill
in the blank with whatever it is you see as being from Him. In the mornings, I sometimes awaken to the
thought “this is the day that the Lord
has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” And so before my feet hit the floor, I make it
a point to thank God for a brand new day – a fresh start, a new beginning, a
clean slate, a white canvas…because God says in His Word, “the Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions
never fail, they are new every morning…great is Thy faithfulness!” (Lamentations
3:22,23) and, “Let the morning bring word of your unfailing love!” (Psalm
143:8) I don’t know about you, but I am
so glad that each day holds the promise of new mercies and unlimited
opportunities to begin again when I make a mis-step or find myself facedown in
a pit. Or, perhaps you prefer to pause
at the end of your day and do your gratitude inventory with God. David, the man after God’s own heart, seemed
to find evening a perfect time to reflect and meditate upon the Lord: “In
peace I both lie down and sleep, for the Lord alone causes me to dwell in
safety.” (Psalm 4) “On my bed I remember you; I think of you
through the watches of the night.” (Psalm 63) And maybe one of the best
reminders for us as to when to turn our attention and affections toward God is
this one, “From the rising of the sun to
the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” (Psalm
113) Apparently, any time is a good time
to give thanks to the Lord. Choose your
time – set an alarm to go off at a designated time and when it does, think over
the past hour and name as many things you can to thank Him for. As you sit down to a meal, pause and thank
God for the ways He’s fed your soul through the day. When you jump in the shower (or step, for those of you who prefer not to
jump) thank God that He has cleansed you from all unrighteousness, and has
washed you in the blood of Christ. After
you workout, thank God that just as He has enabled your body to endure the
strain and stress of exertion, so He provides you with what you need to endure
the adversity and suffering that comes with life. Taking the time to pause and thank God begins
to lay the groundwork for a grateful attitude.
Another handy phrase you can
begin saying is, “Thank you God that I
have enough.” The reason this is
helpful is that it forces you to remember all that God has provided you when
facing the temptation to compare your ‘stuff’ with other people’s ‘stuff’, or to
buy something that is perhaps an impulse purchase or really strong want. If we want
grateful hearts toward God, then we must acknowledge this very real tug on us,
and speak this phrase out loud as often as we feel pulled by the temptation for
more, bigger, better, and newer. I know adults
who indulge themselves with new vehicles, new clothes, and new gadgets – not
because they needed any of it, but because they wanted it. Their reasons may vary – they were tired of
what they had, they needed a change, they wanted to upgrade, their neighbor
just got one and it is so cool, or it was just too amazing to pass up. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to want
things, or to purchase things that you want.
What I am saying is that we need to balance that with the ability to say
“no” to ourselves, especially when it isn’t financially wise to do so. Ask God
to help you discern when to say “yes” to yourself and when to say, “Thank you
God that I have enough”.
Finally, I think it’s
important to ask, “How can I share from
all that God has given me with someone else?” By looking for ways to bless others, we are
acknowledging God’s generosity to us, and are “thanking Him” by doing what He
has asked of us – to give and do for others.
When we begin to look around to see who we can help with our resources…whether
it is time, money, material items, or manpower, we begin to realize how much we
really do have. Jesus said we would
never lack for opportunities to help others – and clearly in our own society,
maybe even in our own neighborhood or family, we see that He is right. In fact, Jesus also said that when we do
these things for others, it is the same as if we are doing it for Him. Is there a better way to thank God than by
sharing His love and resources with others so that they, too, might come to
know Christ through us? When we develop a mindset of looking around to see with
whom God may want us to share, we begin to compare less and thank Him
more.
I have to include something
that happened two days ago that really drives this point home. A family of four in our church recently lost
their home to a fire – the house was completely consumed and they lost
everything. The wife, a friend of mine,
has for the past few years donated a $100 gift card to provide Thanksgiving to
a family in need. True to form, she
contacted me to do the same this year.
However, instead of just providing one gift card, she said, “My husband
and I want to provide for six families in need.” Now, I knew they had just lost everything, and
I knew she didn’t work and he was a teacher and they had two little ones. I asked her, “Are you sure about this?” And
her answer: “Elaine, God has been so
faithful in providing for us, I want to do this to help show other families how
God is faithful to provide for them too.
Yes, we want to do this for six families.” So, that evening I am teaching a class at our
church and another friend of mine is there.
We begin to chat and she asks me, “Hey, do you know about that gal whose
family lost their home in a fire?” I
told her I did. She continues, “I don’t
know her but I wondered if you would give her something for me. God has been so
good to my family; I want to share some of that with her? I want it to be
anonymous, please.” And she handed me an
envelope with the gal’s name on it. The
next day I leave the envelope at the receptionist’s desk at the church because
she’s dropping off the gift cards that morning.
I’m in a meeting when she texts me, “Do you know who the lady is that
gave you the envelope to give me?” I
replied that I did. She texted me back,
“I cannot stop crying over the generosity God continues to show me and my
family – we are so blessed and I cannot stop thanking God for His
goodness!” My two friends have thankful
hearts and God is able to use them in mighty ways because they understand they
have a generous Father, and they want to be just like Him.
These are some practical ways
to begin cultivating hearts of gratitude and thankfulness. As Christians, we
know that God has already “blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” and has
given us “everything we need for a godly
life through our knowledge of Him who called us.” God delights in helping us become more like
Jesus, who understood more than all of us just how good, gracious, and generous
His Father is. We want to have hearts
like His, and these suggestions will help us develop a thankful heart and a
better outlook on life.
My verse for this month is:
Zephaniah 3:17The Lord your God is with you,the Mighty Warrior who saves.He will take great delight in you;He will be quiet in His love,He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy!
My friend Amy had listed this
as one of her faves, and I loved it so much I decided I was going to make it my
next verse. Thanks Amy!
Grace and peace,
Elaine
