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Develop A Grateful Heart
‘My mouth shall show forth Your praise.’ Psalm 51:15 NKJV
A grateful heart sees each day as a gift. It’s like a magnet sweeping over your day, collecting reasons to be grateful. It thanks God for the miracle of muscles that enable your eyes to read these words and your brain to process them. It thanks God for lungs that can inhale and exhale eleven thousand litres of air every day. It thanks God for a heart that will beat about three billion times in your lifetime, and for a brain that’s a veritable electric generator and supercomputer of power. It thanks God for jam on your toast and milk on your cereal. For the blanket that warms you and the joke that delights you. For the thousands of planes that didn’t crash today. For the men who didn’t cheat on their wives, and the wives who didn’t turn on their men. And the kids who, in spite of unspeakable pressure to dishonour their parents, decided not to do so.
Rejoicing over the good stuff is what gets you through the hard stuff. ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine.’ (Proverbs 17:22 NLT) Gratitude is an attitude you choose, not a reaction to your circumstances. ‘On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it.’ (1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NLT) Note, the words betrayed and thanks are in the same sentence, and in the same heart. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave thanks. And you can do that when you know God is in control, directing your steps, and working everything out for your good.
written by Bob Gass
‘My mouth shall show forth Your praise.’ Psalm 51:15 NKJV
A grateful heart sees each day as a gift. It’s like a magnet sweeping over your day, collecting reasons to be grateful. It thanks God for the miracle of muscles that enable your eyes to read these words and your brain to process them. It thanks God for lungs that can inhale and exhale eleven thousand litres of air every day. It thanks God for a heart that will beat about three billion times in your lifetime, and for a brain that’s a veritable electric generator and supercomputer of power. It thanks God for jam on your toast and milk on your cereal. For the blanket that warms you and the joke that delights you. For the thousands of planes that didn’t crash today. For the men who didn’t cheat on their wives, and the wives who didn’t turn on their men. And the kids who, in spite of unspeakable pressure to dishonour their parents, decided not to do so.
Rejoicing over the good stuff is what gets you through the hard stuff. ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine.’ (Proverbs 17:22 NLT) Gratitude is an attitude you choose, not a reaction to your circumstances. ‘On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it.’ (1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NLT) Note, the words betrayed and thanks are in the same sentence, and in the same heart. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave thanks. And you can do that when you know God is in control, directing your steps, and working everything out for your good.
written by Bob Gass
