What would our lives look like if we recognized that gratitude is the key to understanding our relationships with one another, the world around us, and God? By exploring gratitude, we will discover that being grateful to God is our righteous duty and also the best predictor of our well-being. Gratitude is an urgent necessity that, remarkably, also makes us more faithful, joyful, generous, healthy, and content.
Baker Publishing
Day 1
What Blocks My Gratitude?
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Proverbs 1:19, 28:25-28, Deuteronomy 4:29
While there are many ways to get gratitude—from fostering faith in God’s goodness to practical means such as journaling—there are also many ways to block it. Some of these are innocent. People with clinical anxiety or depression or deeply rooted shame may be too troubled to experience gratitude.
Commands, even biblical commands, to be grateful can seem irrelevant and even offensive when directed at the anxious, depressed, or shamed person. Maybe someone can barely get out of bed. How are they going to answer the call to be grateful? The same goes for people with serious diseases or other forms of suffering so overwhelming that gratitude is, at present, hard to come by.
Cynicism about the motives of our benefactors will block gratitude. Like most twisted attitudes, cynicism is a real curse. The cynic blocks their own gratitude and much else, including trust and love.
Self-sufficiency blocks our ability to form gratitude. After all, if I feel obliged or beholden, doesn’t that make me dependent? I want independence. I want rugged individualism. I am resistant to handouts. The trouble is that with these attitudes, gratitude becomes uphill work for me.
Greed also blocks gratitude because it makes me discontent. If I’m never satisfied and always want more, I am unlikely to be grateful for what I already have. Sad to say, greed is contagious. It spreads through whole swaths of society in which people think trying hard to be super rich is normal. The obstacle to gratitude I’m discussing here is not riches but greed for riches. All by itself, wealth may be a blessing or a curse depending on what one does with it; but greed is always a curse when it thwarts contentment and gratitude.
Cynicism. Self-sufficiency. Greed. Apathy. Resentment. Entitlement. So many ways to stop gratitude! You would almost think that the forces of evil have a particular purpose in preventing us from being grateful. Considering all these obstacles to gratitude, it seems a wonder that anybody still has it. And yet many folks do. They thank God, family members, and friends every day. They keep a list of all their blessings and rejoice over them. And they develop antidotes for the sins that block gratitude.
What keeps you from developing a posture of gratitude in your daily life? What antidotes for these obstacles can you imagine? Suppose, with the obstacles removed, you start to experience gratitude. How do you think your life might change?
Day 2
What Happens to Me If I Am Grateful?
Scripture: Proverbs 21: 2-3, Psalm 32:8, Hebrews 13:15-16
As we learn to practice gratitude our lives start to change.
Gratitude makes us content. Gratitude turns what I have into enough. This works because grateful and contented people are blessed with a realistic outlook. They don’t expect too much. Realistic expectations are an exhibit of humility.
Few will be surprised that gratitude also tends to produce generosity. You may be more surprised to learn that the link between gratitude and generosity is hardwired into our brains. In particular, positive psychologists have documented the correlation between one’s outlook on life and one’s health and well-being. Experience may teach us that gratitude can produce (or at least predict) contentment, joy, and generosity. But gratitude also predicts hope and general happiness—two states unmistakably characteristic of well-being.
In addition, grateful people enjoy an eye-opening number of other benefits.
• They experience less depression and anxiety.
• They sleep longer and better and awaken more refreshed.
• They have lower levels of systemic inflammation.
• They have higher levels of happiness and satisfaction with their lives.
• They are less prone to materialism.
• They are less prone to workplace burnout.
• They are more resilient after traumatic events.
• They are more patient.
We can spot our Creator’s ingenuity in arranging life this way—so that doing what’s right also turns out to be doing what’s healthy and wise. It’s right to be grateful for the gifts that come to us. In God’s world, we also thrive as we do what’s right.
Besides being prominent in Scripture as the fitting response to God’s mighty acts, besides being prominent in worship in prayer and sacrament, gratitude appears to be the single virtue most prominently associated with human flourishing. No wonder Scripture so urgently calls us to thankfulness.
Would you describe yourself as content, joyful, or generous? If not, may I join you in praying: Gracious God, open my eyes to what is good and enough. I feel far from having a grateful heart, but I ask You to begin recreating my heart so that I see your generosity and beauty all around me. Amen.
Day 3
Biblical Themes
Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:11–18, Psalm 9:1-4, 10-12
Gratitude triggered by the memory of God’s mighty acts of deliverance is a classic pattern in the Bible. As Christians, we preserve this pattern in the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper with its Great Prayer of Thanksgiving.
In Scripture, God keeps calling Israel and the church to remember how much they have to give thanks for. We can see the pattern with Israel in the wilderness.
God has rescued Israel from bondage in Egypt, but she has not yet reached the promised land. God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai, who then passed them on to the Israelites. As recorded in Deuteronomy, the first commandment presents God as their Liberator: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” (Deut. 5:6–7). A few commandments later, God tells the Israelites to “observe the sabbath day and keep it holy” (v. 12) and prohibits work on the sabbath by everybody in the household, including an Israelite’s servants.
The reason for the prohibition is instructive. Israel is called to remember God’s “mighty hand and outstretched arm” in delivering them from the Egyptians and to thank God for their freedom (v. 15). It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of the exodus deliverance in the rest of the Bible. God’s biblical reputation becomes that of, the exodus God. God’s people are the exodus people.
For example, the psalms that praise or thank God for deliverance are—explicitly or not—referring to the exodus. Psalm 9 tells of God’s “wonderful deeds” and praises God for them (vs. 1). Psalm 95 speaks of singing and shouting to our Lord for He “is the great King above all Gods (v. 3). Throughout Scripture, this theme beats like a drum. God has done great things for His people and for you. Accordingly, God’s people must be people of praise and thanksgiving.
Pause in silence before the Lord. As you quiet yourself for just a few minutes, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of God’s deliverance in your life, of specific ways you have experienced God’s faithfulness.
Day 4
Thank God! Why?
Scripture: Psalm 32:1-5, Isaiah 44:21-22, Philippians 4:6-7
In saying why we thank God as our Creator, it’s natural to start with the gifts of ordinary life such as food and family and friends and a measure of good health. It’s then fitting to thank God our Savior for redeeming us. The remarkable fact is that God saves sinners. It sounds so simple. God saves sinners. But behind this simple sentence is a world of suffering—the suffering caused by human sin and the suffering of God in redeeming it.
None of us can doubt the suffering caused by sin. Kids bully other kids in school and mock them online. Men beat up women and then blame them for causing the beating. People of majority groups scorn people of minority groups and find ways to let them know it. Heads of large nations cast their eye on the natural resources of small nations and devise ways to plunder them.
And yet, in recent decades, many of us have not heard much about sin, even in church. How do we thank God for forgiving sin when we won’t talk about sin? The writers of Scripture weren’t at all afraid to talk about sin. They kept repeating that God saves sinners.
• “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Tim. 1:15)
• “God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)
What follows this message should be full, hearty, and sincere thanks. We thank God not only for the forgiveness of our sins but also for God’s mercy that comforts and heals us when we are the victims of other people’s sins.
God will not tolerate sin, but God will forgive it. When God does this, sin is pushed out of sight, out of mind, out of the way, and can no longer get between God and the people God loves. To remove sin, God regenerates our dead hearts so we’re willing to confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness. This is grace more powerful than we could ever imagine.
Grace is also expensive. It’s lavish, profuse, and uncalculating. The source of grace is not a small pipe with a thin stream but a huge fountain that sprays high and wide in every direction. John’s Gospel says that Jesus Christ came to us full of grace and truth and that He has poured it out on us as “grace upon grace” (John 1:14, 16). This is cause for thanks.
Where in your life do you find yourself thanking God for forgiveness? Where in your life do you still need to do so?
Day 5
Live with Purpose
Scripture: Isaiah 2:2-4, 35:8-10, 65:17-19, 1 Corinthians 15:58
For our last day, I want to talk about something close to the heart of every thoughtful person—namely, how to live with purpose in the world, to get up in the morning and look forward to doing something constructive.
All kinds of people have all kinds of purposes for their lives, conscious or not. They want to be happy. They’d like to get rich. They’d like to be admired. Some want to be envied. Some of these goals are of doubtful worth, but many others are perfectly healthy. It’s perfectly healthy to hope for fulfilling work because it brings real goods and services to the world. It’s healthy to want to cultivate a network of good friends or to raise a flourishing family. When our purposes are healthy, and God fulfills them, our natural response is thankfulness.
We Christians have a supreme purpose, one that Jesus gave us: “Strive first for the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). Following Jesus in this commission gives a huge reason for gratitude. What’s more, many other purposes fit inside this uber-purpose. Finding fulfilling work, raising a thriving family, cultivating a network of friends—these and many other purposes fit inside our supreme purpose.
Those living with kingdom purpose have been penetrated by the Spirit of God. We can tell. They love God. They love their neighbors. Even when they don’t like their neighbors, they love them by treating them well. They hunger for justice. They read Scripture with an appetite and ponder it with respect. They hate cruelty and join efforts to oppose it. They love kindness and support groups that show it. They know that God’s kingdom project is to make things right in the world, and they want to be part of that project.
How does this shape us as His followers? One day God will fill the earth with justice, harmony, and delight. This is the blessed state of shalom, of universal flourishing, wholeness, and joy—all according to God’s purpose and all under the arch of God’s blessing and love. Shalom is the Hebrew way of spelling the full coming of the kingdom of God. Christians believe that God will one day make shalom happen, so they gather, work, and partner with a shared purpose.
As Christians accept Jesus’s commission, we will never run out of good things to do.
Fulfilling our purpose in life, we will feel needed.
Feeling needed, we will feel valuable.
Feeling valuable, we will feel grateful.
Prayer: Gracious God, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Show me my role inside your kingdom and enable me to fill it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.