Beloved, be assured that God has already planned a way that is best for you and though yours is specially customized for you, still the Bible has outlined a general way that’s best for every single person to follow. One such instruction, found in 1 Thessalonians, concerns gratitude. In this regard, Apostle Paul said,
“Be thankful,
whatever the circumstances may be. If you follow this advice you will be
working out the will of God expressed to you in Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 Phillips)
Beloved, God’s desire is that you express
your gratitude “whatever the circumstances may
be”. In other words, be thankful no matter what.
Beloved, God does not want your life and
your happiness to be defined and dictated by your circumstances.
Listen, if being thankful is God’s will,
that means it holds great importance to Him and therefore should be a top
priority for you. You must always strive to do the will of God in your life,
even Jesus Christ, on His way to the cross, said to God the Father, “…it is not My will, but Yours, that must be done.” (Luke
22:42 Phillips)
Indulge me today as I explore a bit, with
you, the will of God as it pertains to gratitude by linking other Scriptures
that deal with God’s will to 1 Thessalonians 5:18. After which you and I are
going to conduct an experiment over the next three months.
It’s said that it takes just over two
months for behavior to change, so I figure in ninety days we should be well on
our way to habitual thankfulness. Really and truly the numbers aren’t that
important, what matters is for us to get started.
Please keep in mind that this is by no
means an in-depth study, just a simple experiment that will have beneficial
results for everyone who participates.
Now, reading 2 Peter 3:9 we see that it’s
not God’s will that any of us should perish, so from this we can deduce that
expressing gratitude will not be to our detriment but something great is bound
to come out of it. These days human beings seem terribly reluctant to say thank
you. Sadly, ingratitude has become the rule and not the exception.
Looking at Romans 12:2 we can say that to
give thanks is good and acceptable and perfect in God’s sight because it’s His
will. Also, Mark 3:35 demonstrates that
saying thank you qualifies you and I to be in relationship with Jesus as His siblings
because being thankful is the will of God.
Please note that expressions of gratitude
must be heartfelt and sincere, not an exercise in shallow lip service.
I’m thanking
you, God, from a full heart (Psalm 9:1 MSG)
Recognize that even in suffering according
to God’s will we need to be thankful because there’s always a reason for our
suffering and through it His purpose will be fulfilled.
So if
you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right and
trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you. (1 Peter 4:19 TLB).
In other words, those trials and challenges
that you face should never stop you from giving thanks. Be in a state of
constant gratitude. Yes, it’s tough but doable, else God would not have told us
to do it. Remember, His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Beloved, I believe that living in a
constant state of gratitude will have a very positive effect, first on you as the
grateful person and as you change everyone around you will also begin to
change. Sincere gratitude promotes genuine all-round happiness all the time
(see Psalm 95:1-3).
In order for this gratitude experiment to
work we have to share this blog post, asking family and friends to participate
and after three months, we’ll testify to our individual findings. I hope you’re
up for the challenge; it’s worth a try.
Thank you for joining me and thank God for
what is about to happen in, with, for, and through, all of us.
Amen †
Shelley Johnson “The Gratitude Experiment” ©
2016 revisited November 28, 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment