On Grace and Gratitude
By, Sarah N.
As I type these words, Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching. At this time of year, we hear more about thankfulness and hopefully we truly are thinking more about all that we have to be thankful for. As I have been considering how thankfulness fits into the Christian life, I’ve come to realize that gratitude is not so much about being polite or even about feeling thankful. It is about being obedient to God and giving Him glory.
There are MANY verses in the Bible that tell us that God not only deserves our gratitude, but also requires it:
Psalm 7:17 “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
Psalm 69:30 “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”
Ephesians 5:19-20 “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”
Colossians 4:2 “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Gratitude is the natural outflow of a heart whose gaze is fixed on God. When we meditate on who God is and what he has done, how can we not offer prayers of thanksgiving and offerings of praise?
James 1:17 says “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” This is a simple idea for the Christian to confess, but how easy it is to dismiss its enormous implications.
God’s gifts to us are all portions of his unlimited grace. However, we humans can grow so accustomed to His good will that we begin to take His gifts for granted. An ungrateful heart is a heart that feels so entitled to grace, that it forgets to honor the One who grants it. An ungrateful heart desires the gift more than the Giver. An ungrateful heart may even curse the Giver when the gift is not deemed “good” to the one who receives it. Our standard for goodness should never be used to measure the grace of God. Even our trials can be gifts of God’s grace. Who are we to pick and choose how the all-knowing God should administer his grace?
The grace of God must be so ever-apparent to us, that our gratitude daily attempts to match it. In the book of Revelation, when we see mention of the elders and those surrounding the throne of God in heaven, they are giving thanks (7:12, 11:17). We can only assume that our eternity in heaven will also be spent giving thanks to our God.
So how do we practice gratitude while here on earth, especially when we don’t “feel” thankful?
- “Fake it till you make it” A sincere heart is important, but sometimes we sincerely have trouble finding things to be grateful for. In these times, we should practice voicing our thanks to God anyways, even if the only thing we can think of is the fact that he has saved our souls. That alone is enough to offer our eternal gratitude, but meditating on what God has done for us will open our eyes to his goodness and how it is displayed all around us. Eventually, our hearts will be so attuned to his good gifts, that we will continually offer prayers of thanksgiving to our Lord.
- “Count your blessings” Not only is it one of my favorite songs (hello, White Christmas), it is a legitimate way to increase our thankfulness. Along the lines of “fake it till you make it,” just the practice of writing down one or two things each day that we are thankful for will adjust our perspective to reveal more and more and more gifts from God.
- “Thank you notes” My mother always made me write thank you notes for every gift I received. Sometimes this can seem tedious, but it is important to express our gratitude for others not only to God, but also to them. Paul gave us many examples of his thankfulness for fellow believers in his letters in the New Testament. You may not decide to write literal notes to every person you consider to be a blessing, but intentionally treating them in ways that show your gratitude can only build up the unity of believers.
- Finally, thanksgiving is a crucial element of the Christian’s prayer life. It is not that God needs our thanks, or that he will withhold his goodness because we aren’t using our manners. But if we can talk to God and NOT want to show him gratitude, we must evaluate our hearts and refocus our gaze to better see his grace-filled gifts.
2 Corinthians 4:15 “For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”
God’s grace grows our gratitude for His glory.
