Living a Grateful Life
Available for Speaking Engagements 503-750-8308
For “‘In him we live and move and
have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed
his offspring.’ (Acts 17:28)
Living a life of gratitude to the Lord is not easy. True
thankfulness and gratitude are lost in our busy lives. Sometimes it seems that non-Christian
younger generations don’t consider gratitude a worthwhile or necessary emotion
at all. Good things are deserved and therefore gratitude is unnecessary.
Worldly gratitude seems to be a passing emotion that
pops up quickly when something good happens and disappears just as quickly. We
are taught at a young age to say thank you. When someone opens a door for us,
we say thank you. When we are given a gift, we say thank you. Saying thank you
to the one in whom we live and move and have our being should not be as
shallow.
Give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Living a grateful life is easy when things are going
well. When our jobs are going smoothly, the family is all getting along, we
have enough money to pay bills and take a vacation, we are the most verbally
thankful Christians around.
In negative situations, though, when we lose our job or
worse, when money is tight and family fighting rules the day, where is our
thanks then? Being asked to be grateful on
those days seems ridiculous. No one would be grateful when terrible things are
happening. But this is what God desires and deserves from us.
And let the peace of Christ rule in
your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
(Colossians 3:15)
When we have peace from Christ in our hearts, it is because
we have faith that He is working in our situation. With faith and peace, we can
be grateful in all situations, but only the Holy Spirit can give us this fruit
when we ask for it. When life is hard, we must ask for more faith and peace so that
we can be truly thankful for our circumstance no matter what it is.
We have so much to be grateful for. We have been
redeemed. We have been made new and we will spend eternity with our Father who is
in heaven. We are free from sin and death. Yes, life here is difficult and
sometimes unbearable. We will cry and moan in pain and we will be afraid, but
we can live a truly grateful life in Christ, knowing that nothing here can
steal our salvation and that God will meet our needs.
So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I
will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6)
It may seem impossible to be grateful in all circumstances,
but with God all things are possible. With God, we can do all things. Gratitude
in the Christian should be as regular as breathing.
God is working in our lives all the time. We are
exactly where He wants us. We are learning exactly what we need to learn. We
are perfectly in His time and in His hands.
The Lord is my strength and my
shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my
song I give thanks to him. (Psalm 28:7)
Let us not be fickle with gratitude to the Lord.
Either we believe that He is good all the time or we don’t. If we believe that
God is good and that He is working all things for the good of those who love Him,
then we must express our gratitude even when we may not feel it.
Seek more of the Holy Spirit. Set your eyes and hearts
on things that truly matter. We have been given everything that is important in
the universe. Live a grateful life. Let us show God and the world just how
grateful we are for His great love.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he
is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 107:1)
Prayer: Thank you oh God for what is going
on in our lives today. Thank you for our pasts and our futures. Thank you for
the worst thing that every happened and for the best. We love you and we praise
you. Give us your grace to have more faith and peace in our hearts so that
gratitude will fill us no matter what is happening. We want to be grateful. We
want to praise you more. Holy Spirit fill us with gratitude for all things.
Amen
Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much
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