1 Thessalonians 5:18 “ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This episode explains the importance of being grateful. It talks about how God is calling us to be grateful everyday, no matter the circumstances. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Thankfulness Opens The Door to My Presence
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I talk about gratitude a lot because I believe it is the key to so many things. I think if we can practice being grateful more often we will discover how much more we have to be grateful for. If we are more grateful with those we love then our relationships will become stronger. If we are more grateful to those who work for us then they will like coming to work more and will probably work harder because they feel appreciated. That is what gratitude does, it shows appreciation. One of my sisters said to me the other day that her love language was gratitude. When her customers and when her co workers show her appreciations she feels loved and is so much happier at work. Think about your own life. Are you happier when you feel appreciated? Do you like it when people are grateful for the things you do for them? I know I am happier and I love it when people show gratitude for the things I do.
This morning’s devotional in “Jesus Calling” talked about gratitude in a way I really liked. Remember these devotionals are written as if they are a direct message from Jesus. I think I liked this one so much because it explained exactly how important I think gratitude is and yet I couldn’t quite explain it as eloquently as the Lord did. I mean, He is God after all. Here is the passage from this morning’s devotional:
“Thankfulness opens the door to My Presence. Though I am always with you, I have gone to great measures to preserve your freedom of choice. I have placed a door between you and me, and I have empowered you to open or close that door. There are many ways to open it, but a grateful attitude is one of the most effective. Thankfulness is built on a substructure of trust. When thankful words stick in your throat, you need to check up on your foundation of trust. When thankfulness flows freely from your heart and lips, let your gratitude draw you closer to me. I want you to learn the art of giving thanks in all circumstances. See how many times you can thank me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings. It will also cushion the impact of trials when they come against you. Practice my presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness.”
I know, there is a lot in there, so let’s unpack that together. First God is saying thankfulness, or gratitude opens the door to His Presence. Who wouldn’t want to be in God’s presence? I feel as though just knowing that makes me want to be more thankful throughout the day. We often say God gave us free will. However, do we really understand what that means? Do we understand if we want God in our lives, we need to choose Him? We need to make the constant decision to follow Him and His ways? God is not going to force Himself upon us, we get to decide if we are going to invite Him into our lives and it is not just a one and done type of situation. It is a multiple times a day kind of situation. I really like how God explains in this passage that although he is always with us there is a door in between us as well. I love the wording of this phrase. I love how He says He has empowered us to open or close the door. God, the almighty one, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings has given us the power to decide if we want to open or close the door. That is pretty awesome and also it’s a lot of responsibility. Sometimes I wish I could trade my free will for God’s will. Sometimes I wish it weren’t up to me to choose to do the right thing. Have you ever felt like that? Do you struggle with choosing to do the right thing? Do you ever feel like it would just be easier if you didn’t have that choice? It might be easier if we didn’t have the choice, but it also wouldn’t be true love if we didn’t have a choice. Love is not true love if it is taken, it must be freely given.
The next line in the devotional says, “There are many ways to open it, but a grateful attitude is one of the most effective.” A grateful attitude is one of the most effective ways to get closer to God, to open the door between you and Him. Do you even need to hear anything else? I feel as though I could end this devotional with that line and you would have all the info you need. However, God didn’t stop there, He kept going. The next line, is interesting. “Thankfulness is built on a substructure of trust.” It goes on to say if you struggle with gratitude you should examine your foundation of trust. I am going to be honest and admit that I don’t completely understand this line. I think about when someone gives me a gift, why would I not want to say thank you? What does that have to do with trust? The thought coming to me is that I am not trusting their motives maybe. For instance this salesman on the phone this morning was complimenting me on my website. I said thank you, but in my mind I was telling myself he was just saying it to get me to buy what he was selling. So, I guess I can see how sometimes our reluctance to say thankful things could be because a lack of trust. And then when we can be grateful we can let that gratefulness draw us closer to God.
The ending says, “I want you to learn the art of giving thanks in all circumstances. See how many times you can thank me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings. It will also cushion the impact of trials when they come against you. Practice my presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness.” This is such a clear call to action and such a practical thing for us to start doing. Sometimes when we hear about things that will help us grow closer to God we don’t always know how to do them. For instance, how exactly do we trust in God more? What are the steps? This time, God spells out exactly what He wants us to do. He wants us to learn how to give thanks in all circumstances. This isn’t necessarily a clear path, as we know what God wants us to do, but not necessarily how to do it. But God doesn’t stop there. He tells us to see how many times a day we can thank Him. This is a very practical thing and it is not at all confusing. God is calling us to practice thanksgiving each day. If we are already in the habit of seeing how many times we can thank God when things are going well, it will be easier to keep up this habit when things aren’t going well. I love how God says gratitude will cushion the impact of trials. When you can focus on the good things and learn to be grateful in the really hard times, then gratitude makes the hard times hurt a little less. They are still awful, but the gratitude does lessen the blow. If we can practice thankfulness each and every day we will continue to grow closer and closer to God. God is calling us to see how many times a day we can thank Him. Are you going to answer that call?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to practice being grateful, please help us. We are so grateful you empowered us to open the door in between us. We want to grow closer to you each and every day. Lord, help us to hear these words from you today. Open our hearts and minds to your message of gratitude. Help us to grasp the importance of it and help us to develop and attitude of gratitude. Lord you are amazing. You are the Light of the World and we adore you. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day.