| Gratitude | | Print | |
| July 21, 2006 | |
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\Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.\ (Eph 5:20 NIV) How important is gratitude as it relates to being spiritually motivated? How much does God desire for our motivation to be produced out of a generous overflowing sense of gratitude? Note some of the numerous times where the qualifying words \with thanksgiving\ are added to the end of commands. . \Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving...\ (Ps 147:7 NIV) \Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.\ (Ps 100:4 NIV) \Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.\ (Ps 95:2 NIV) \I will praise God\'s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. THIS WILL PLEASE THE LORD MORE than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.\ (Ps 69:30-31 NIV) \Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.\ (Phil 4:6 NIV) \For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.\ (1 Tim 4:4-5 NIV) What stands out to you in these passages? We are commanded to sing, enter His gates, come before Him, give praise to His name, glorify Him, pray to Him, and receive everything He has created with thanksgiving. Haven\'t we all noticed that without gratitude, almost every command seems burdensome and arduous; every expectation from the Lord and others seems unreasonable? Gratitude is the \great attitude\. It is the one that can influence all of the spiritual attitudes that we need to have. When I really think about how many sins God has forgiven in my life--my soul wants sing and pray words of gratitude. I am eager to be with other saints to worship and fellowship. When I deeply think about how patient and merciful through the years God has responded to my rebellious and self-centered attitudes and actions, I am more motivated to freely and whole-heartedly give of myself to do His will. When I think of how much others have been patient, forgiving, and persevered with me through my weaknesses and sins, I am highly motivated to hang in there with others without getting bitter and resentful. Recently, I have been trying to give extra attention to becoming a more grateful person, particular in my marriage. The other day in a discipling time with Kevin and Mary Mains, Robyn and I asked for their help to resolve a disagreement that we were having. We were very thankful that we both received excellent advice and discipling from them. Kevin and Mary challenged me to grow more in my sensitivity and encouragement toward Robyn. I left that time realizing that if that were going to occur, I needed to pray and focus a lot more on how blessed I was to have Robyn as my wife and soul mate. I started thinking about all the many ways she gives to me and to others and began enumerating them in my prayer times with the Lord. That exercise reminded me of how very blessed I am to have such an amazing woman by my side. A day or two later, Robyn asked me for help with a problem she was having with her computer. If I had not grown in the depth of my appreciation for her, my tendency would have been to be inwardly annoyed at having to stop what I was doing (that, of course, from my perspective was much more important). INSTEAD, I was very eager to make the time to show her how. That\'s the power of thankfulness; with God\'s Spirit, gratitude empowers us to say no to our selfish nature and to love more and more. We all have times in our lives when we are just not that motivated to keep on loving and denying ourselves. Is that where you are right now? If so, I encourage you to really examine your \gratitude level\. Is it high or near empty? Gratitude provides a continuously flowing fountain of motivation to sacrifice, to love, to endure, to share, to forgive, to rejoice, to make time for others, to evangelize, and to disciple and train others. Is thankfulness something you need to pray and focus on? If it is consistently your greatest attitude, you will find throughout your walk with God and others that your heart will have a fountain of motivation that will never dry up or fade away. |