Around Thanksgiving, kids and adults are taught about gratitude. A few tips, a little prayer – all short and sweet. But the matter of gratitude is heavy and deep. It has to do with the care of our souls and the tending of our relationships with God and one another. It’s a spiritual practice that leads to joy, and it’s at the heart of generosity.
So, this year, we encourage you to make the most of this Thanksgiving Day and establish new habits of gratitude that will carry you through the next year. We’ll follow this article with 10 suggested practices to help you do that.
The Bible is laden with teachings about gratitude and commands to be thankful – for daily practice and not just special occasions. Not only is the command to give thanks to God all over the Old Testament, it makes its way into the stories Jesus tells. It’s commanded in the law, remembered in the prophets, and it’s at the heart of many of the psalms. It’s the action Jesus praises a doubly ostracized and lesser-known good Samaritan for taking in Luke 17. And it’s often what God rebukes people in the Bible for failing to do.
Ingratitude is the behavior that God punished the complainers in the wilderness for. The apostle Paul tells about people whose hearts were darkened when they didn’t give thanks to God (Romans 1:21). And ingratitude, Paul tells Timothy, is a sign of the last days.
In the Scriptures, gratitude and thanksgiving are mentioned 229 times. We’re called to thank God for who he is, what he’s done, what he gives us, how he’s saved us, that he keeps his promises, and (like his disciples) that our names are written in heaven. The commands to praise God, thank him, and be grateful are an essential part of our prayer life and outrank (in terms of biblical mention) the command to study the Bible, go to church, or give money. And we can’t keep the two greatest commandments to love God and our neighbors as ourselves without expressing our thanks.
On Thanksgiving, we are especially mindful that our ability to do good work, to provide for our families, and give to others didn’t originate with us and is not just dependent upon our hard work. It is a gift from God, and, the Bible tells us, forgetting this can lead to our destruction (Deuteronomy 8:18-19).
Gratitude is redeemed humanity’s fundamental response to God and … the Scriptures were written in large part to teach us how to give thanks to the Lord. This is the inescapable conclusion that follows from understanding who the Lord is (Giver), what he has given us (everything), and how his grace enables our proper response….
– Doug Ponder, Grimke Seminary
Giving thanks is good for us
God’s commands are never arbitrary. And, of course, God knew before we did that giving thanks is good for us. But it’s interesting to look at what secular research has uncovered in the last 15 years that show God’s way as right. According to U.C. Berkley’s Greater Good Science Center, gratitude has been connected to decreased inflammation, healthier blood sugar, and less arthritis. Those who are grateful have better outcomes after heart failure, and gratefulness has been correlated with higher levels of exercise and healthier eating habits.
The practice of sensing and acting on gratitude helps in overcoming anxiety and depression as well. New methods using gratitude are being tested in therapeutic practices, most interestingly (and simply) as a method for habit reversal therapy for those with struggling with worry, rumination, and negative thoughts. A sense of gratitude is correlated with greater life satisfaction and sense of well-being, fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, more stable moods, greater appreciation and optimism, less worry, and less psychological pain.
Psychologists often call gratitude a “social glue.” It serves to to build deeper (and more resilient) relationships in marriage, to bond families together and to produce happier and more hopeful children (including adolescents).
“Although gratitude is usually conceptualized as a trait, it can be cultivated and practiced,” one study concluded. It’s interesting that this has always been what God asks us to do – cultivate gratitude.
Simply put, being grateful makes people happier.
But the hopefulness and joyfulness of a Christian is more than plain happiness.
Every Christian can be thankful
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” – Hebrews 12:28
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – Luke 12:32-34
Because a kingdom is coming where we won’t just see our needs met but have something so valuable we cannot comprehend it fully on earth, nothing else matters. The things we sometimes try to store up for our own well-being … holding onto them loosely is both a confirmation of, and a method for storing up, treasure in heaven.
Nothing else matters more than what we are called to seek, our Christ and the kingdom of God. And the kicker is that God has already decided to give it to us who believe in Jesus.
We already have everything we need, and the little things until then? He has promised to give them to us.
Isn’t this reason enough to give thanks every day, to make the day we’ve been given off work to throw the biggest celebration of the year, and to challenge ourselves not to lose hold of the gratitude we felt on Thanksgiving Day, or whatever day we realized how much we have in Christ?
Gratitude is not the stuff of greeting cards. It is a life-giving, soul-filling, God-honoring spiritual practice that may just save our lives.
Read 10 ways to give thanks this Thanksgiving and all year for more ideas.
