Daily Gratitude
Psalm 100:4-5
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through the generations.
Gratitude can instantly change your attitude because it shifts your focus from all that is wrong to a heart that is thankful for all that is right. Everyday we have a reason to be grateful regardless of what is going on in our lives. That reason is The Cross. Because of Jesus’ selfless obedience to take on our sins and die for us, we have a hope and a future. His resurrection conquered sin and death and for that we are eternally grateful.
We should be continually grateful that Jesus healed us by the humiliation He suffered on our behalf and His death on the cross. Instead of complaining about our circumstances and the hardships they bring, we should go through each day looking for the tiny treasures that God has strategically placed along the way.
He has provided a way for us to give thanks regardless of our feelings and He will give us joy regardless of our circumstances because thankfulness opens our hearts to His presence and our minds to His thoughts.
Habbakkuk 3: 17-19 reminds us that we can be joyful is any circumstance.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
When we live a life of praise and thankfulness it becomes a life filled with miracles.
In the bible we are encouraged to sing a new song to the Lord. A new song is something that comes from deep within us. It is a response to the life changing work that God is doing in our hearts. A new song draws upon our creativity and often stirs others to genuinely praise God too.
Psalm 40:3
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
That means that as you praise God regardless of your circumstances, others will notice and begin to wonder what makes you different. That difference is that you are spending time with Jesus. You are being transformed into His image through your daily gratitude for all that He is, all that He has done and all that He continues to do in your life. Your life becomes a light that others see and that light will help lead others to Christ.
Make it a practice to write down at least one thing you are grateful for each day; cultivate a grateful heart and experience that joy that is found no other way.