What Makes a Thankful Heart?
Loads of images come flooding in when you hear the word Thanksgiving. What does the word trigger in your mind?
What makes for a thankful heart? Does it overflow from having an abundance of the coolest technology, clothes, or car? Does it come from having a warm house to live in? From being popular? From having a positive cash flow? Or a boyfriend or girlfriend to make you feel special and loved?
Frequently, our minds go down those roads when we collect our thoughts to focus on what we're thankful to God for. But as followers of Jesus, we should look to him as our model for thankfulness. And Jesus didn't have an abundance of 'stuff' in his life, or a nice house, a steady income, or a girlfriend. Yet he lived a life of gratitude and thankfulness. Check out these examples from the Bible:
Faith, faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains!
What would happen if you had no doubt? How would your life transform if you consistently looked for the gift beyond challenges? What if you consistently approached life with an open heart, sincere appreciation and more certainty and confidence in Christ than ever before?
Even researchers are discovering that two specific states can make all the difference in living a powerful and purposeful life: Faith & Gratitude.
FAITH is a belief and feeling of absolute certainty that what God says is true and that it is true for our lives. It is an inner knowing. Faith dispels doubt, disintegrates fear and offers peace. It is a state of total confidence and contentment.
GRATITUDE is the state of sincere appreciation and thanksgiving. Expressing gratitude expands your ability to give and receive abundance. When you are grateful you experience the abundance of life that Jesus talks about in
Faith & Gratitude offers practical teachings that you can use everyday to condition your brain and body to live in harmony with your Spirit. It is the highest states of excellence and joy. It gives you real resources, mindsets, tools, and exercises to support you.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
The Expositor's Bible Commentary says this about John 10:10:
Jesus' main purpose was the salvation (health) of the sheep, which he defined as free access to pasture and fullness of life. Under his protection and by his gift they can experience the best life can offer. In the context of John's emphasis on eternal life, this statement takes on new significance. Jesus can give a whole new meaning to living because he provides full satisfaction and perfect guidance.
Barclay's Daily Study Bible adds,
Jesus claims that he came that men might have life and might have it more abundantly. The Greek phrase used for having it more abundantly means to have a superabundance of a thing. To be a follower of Jesus, to know who he is and what he means, is to have a superabundance of life.
A Roman soldier came to Julius Caesar with a request for permission to commit suicide. He was a wretched dispirited creature with no vitality. Caesar looked at him. "Man," he said, "were you ever really alive?" When we try to live our own lives, life is a dull, dispirited thing. When we walk with Jesus, there comes a new vitality, a superabundance of life. It is only when we live with Christ that life becomes really worth living and we begin to live in the real sense of the word.
We often hear that the key to Christian obedience is thankfulness for what God has done. But the Bible stresses faith and hope much more than gratitude. The Baptist pastor and author John Piper has written,
“Nowhere in the Bible is gratitude connected explicitly with obedience as a motivation. We do not find the phrase ‘out of gratitude’ or ‘in gratitude’ for acts toward God. Christian obedience is called the ‘work of faith,’ never of the ‘work of gratitude’ (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:11). We find expressions like ‘live by faith’ (Galatians 2:20) and ‘walk by faith’ (2 Corinthians 5:7), but never any expression like ‘live by gratitude’ or ‘walk by gratitude.’
We find the expression ‘faith working through love’ (Galatians 5:6), but not ‘gratitude working through love.’ We read that ‘the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith’ (1 Timothy 1:5), but not ‘from sincere gratitude.’ We read that sanctification is by ‘faith in the truth’ (2 Thessalonians 2:13), not that it is ‘by gratitude for the truth.’ We read that ‘faith without works is dead’ (Jas. 2:26), but not that ‘gratitude without works is dead.’ And when Jesus deals with the disciples’ hesitancy to seek the kingdom first because they were worried about food and clothing, he did not say, ‘O men of little gratitude,’ he said, ‘O men of little faith’ (Matthew 6:30).”
Our primary motivation according to the Gospel has to be faith–confidence in what God has given to us and has promised to give us.
What this means is that we, as Christians, are never supposed to merely “gut it out.” We don’t tell ourselves that we need to simply endure because of our obligation to be grateful. No, we endure because we hope in what God promises in the Gospel.
Hebrews 11, among other passages, makes this extremely clear. It speaks of what the saints do “by faith” and makes quite clear what that means. Noah didn’t come home to his wife one day and say, “Well honey, I know life has been good. But God has told me we have to build a big boat in the middle of dry land, and become a laughingstock to everyone around us. It will take time and money and destroy my credibility but we should do it because we should be grateful to God for making us and besides, he’s God and it is always wrong to disobey God.”
Now, if anyone should have been able to simply gut it out, to simply obey because God ordered him to do so or simply out of gratitude for past blessing, it should have been Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God.
But that’s not what the inspired word of God tells us is it! No, he did what he did because he hoped in God and new that the path God had for him to trod would leave him infinitely better off than any other course of action.
So it should be with us. Yes God had given us much, but he always promises us much more. Hope in God’s promises–saving and justifying faith–is the key to the Christian life.
Childlike Faith is the wonder and awe at what Christ did for us. It is a synergy of trust, hope, and unpretentiousness that knows the Lord loves us and will lead us. Because of our trust in the Lord, we are more able to take comfort in Him. Childlike faith sees the world as exciting and adventurous, and worth pursuing with our faith so opportunities to please God override our complacency and the attitude of “been there, done that,” even though we may have. It is a part of us that we should never lose. It enables us to maintain our humbleness and enthusiasm and not become just a subculture or routine!
Jesus sees the value of faith as paramount over anything else; faith is lifted up as the most important thing we have or do. Yet, all too often, we do not seek faith, but rather just what we can get. May be that is why we do not have a Thankful Heart?
What would it be worth to consistently experience Faith that produces Gratitude in your life now?
Faith is the foundation upon which we build our character; it supports the house where the Spirit can dwell and empower us. This is a fruit of the Spirit given to us as we grow and mature. It comes from being "conformed to the image of His Son." (Romans 8:29) Faith and our trust in Christ will be the quintessential aspects of applying obedience and growth in our maturity and character and it will lead to a Thankful Heart
Philippians 4:5-7
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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