Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude

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 3:17

The 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