An Attitute of Gratitude

Today I want to share a brief word of encouragement on the matter of GRATITUDE. The Lord has been working in my life in this area alot lately. The fact is, when you are grateful, you are honoring God. Gratitude is a form of humility, and we know from James 4:10 that when we humble ourselves before God, He'll lift us up in due time. That's His promise. I believe that gratitude simply means honoring God by being thankful. Each day remembering that He granted the very life you have, and that He gave every good and perfect blessing you enjoy about your life (James 1:17). It is an act of humility and worship to thank Him for those things.

Thanksgiving is also an act of faith. According to Hebrews, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). So that means if we do not see the things God has given us, like when trials are so great that they overshadow God's blessings to our human perspective, it would be an act of faith to thank God for the things which He has provided inspite of our inability to "feel them" right now, or to "see" them. One terrific way of doing this is simply to thank God for His purpose behind every time we suffer something. Sometimes it hardly makes sense to say, "Thank you God for all the wonderful blessings in my life" when we are suffering something terrible. It almost feels fake - like we are ignoring the suffering that is louder at that moment than the blessings. Well one very real response we can have to suffering that has hurt us very loudly is not to pretend to ignore the suffering, but to thank God for allowing it to come our way. That way we are exercising faith that He does have our best interest at heart in what He permits in our lives.

A wise person I know used to always say, "Your attitude determines your altitude." There is alot of truth to that statement - and having gratitude in our hearts is a great way of keeping a good attitude in life.

KEY VERSES:

2 Cor. 9:15
"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

Psalm 95:2
"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms."

Psalm 100:4
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."

Phillipians 4:6-7
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be makde known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Colossians 3:16
"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts."