Give Thanks

Thankfulness is often a counterintuitive process. Why would we be thankful for losses, for failures, or for mess ups? But life is a journey of ups and downs. It will not be all ups. It just won’t. Failure teaches us new things. Mistakes help us recognize what should happen. The ugly makes the beauty so much more sweet. Paul had every reason to be bitter. To be angry at God and the cards dealt to him. But he wasn’t. Paul was grateful. He practiced a deliberate posture of gratitude in his life. A lesson we can all learn from. He often seemed most gracious while locked in a prison cell. Paul didn’t allow circumstance to decide his own mentality. He practiced gratitude. Gratitude is the intentional choice to focus on what you have in life rather than what you don’t have.

All Time and All Situations

Paul admonishes us to practice gratitude in all things. The Greek word for all really means all. So gratitude is in all times, places, and situations. There isn’t an exception. The point isn’t that you are happy in all situations, or that the current set of circumstances isn’t difficult. Giving thanks in all things means intentionally seeking what is best in the current. It means you look to what is good. It doesn’t nix grieving the loss of someone, or ignoring your emotions. It doesn’t mean always being a Pollyanna sunshine type person. But it does mean recognizing that even in the worst of times God is still God. He is still there. He hasn’t abandoned you.

Gratitude is Trust

Being thankful even in the most difficult of times is a byproduct of trust in the Lord. Gratitude is trust in God’s story. The temptation is to look at yourself, or your current circumstances, and judge God’s faithfulness off of those things. That isn’t how it works. God has called you into a trust relationship to His story, His mission. He wants you to walk faithfully in that same story. When you take on intentional gratitude you are saying that you trust fully that God is in control of it all. Even the bad times. Even the worst times. You are trusting that God is still there in every circumstance. And you are trusting what He is doing in that circumstance.

Growing Gratitude

Gratitude is grown in the good times. Gratitude does not presume you are responsible for your successes. Paired with a humble spirit, the grateful person recognizes God’s primary role in the good times above and beyond the bad. Self-reliance tears down a grateful spirit. You don’t get to claim responsibility for the good stuff and blame others for the bad. God is the same in the good as in the bad. He isn’t a cosmic gumball machine. When things are going well cultivate a grateful spirit to God and His plan. Your gratitude will grow and you will be more likely to be the same in the hard times.

Make the choice today to be grateful. Again, gratitude is the intentional decision to focus on what you do have in your life over what you don’t have. Focusing on what you don’t have will pull your heart away from God and His goodness. It is the fundamental deception of sin. Something you don’t have is better than what you do have. Don’t fall for it. Cultivate gratitude in the good times and thank God in all times and all situations.