Gratitude Series

Gratitude

Series: Spiritual Practices: Developing Life with God

November 28, 2021

Welcome...each of you here...and online... so thankful for this time.

Today... continue to let God show us how we can connect with him... through spiritual

practices... and today... a little briefer exploration of the practicing...gratitude.

Gratitude is one of the first things we are told to learn... say “please” and “thank you.”

Of course that can make gratitude an obligation...something you say.... more than something

you feel.

Or we begin to think of gratitude as an obligation simply owed...as if God has a need.

> It’s more about a connection than a contract... more about what we discover than what we simply

owe.

“It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful.”

- Jesuit priest 

This is why those who found the deepest connection to God called us to practice giving thanks. [1]

Psalm 95:2

"Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with

songs of praise!"

Notice we come with thanksgiving... and joy is what arises.

It’s been noted that gratitude is actually at the very core of happiness. [2]

I think of my grandmother...we called “Nana”... had the least in material wealth... yet you

have never met anyone as grateful. Cut coupons every morning. She saw everything as the

best. She got a colonoscopy...and said... it was the best.

Some of may think...well we just don’t experience joy... like others... so it’s hard to be

grateful.

You may think that gratitude works for those for who see the glass as always half full

...and you may be one of those who see it as half empty.

What can help us practice gratitude?

Offer a few quick truths that can be helpful.

1. Stop focusing on what we don’t have.

Take a fresh look at what you already have (... rather than living for the “if” and “when” of the might

have.)

Perspective: Live less in the “if” and “when”...and more in the now.

Stop living for the “if” and “when”

Untether your heart from the “if only” deprivation of

The grass is always greener on the other side. We have all probably heard this phrase. At some

point in life, we have all wanted for more than we have been given and have looked at someone

else and envied his/her lot. 

If you were to consider how many times each day am I being told there is something I need...

something that will satisfy a desire ...and compare that to how much time is given to taking in the

goodness of what we have... it become clear that we are shaped to want more.

I am being formed to never be happy... to never really appreciate anything I actually have.

This is not to suggest that there are not some true needs... but we all know that our actual needs

are few...and usually met... and it’s the “wants” that consume our hearts more than the our most

basic needs.

And so we relate as the deprived... and the deserving.... who should have what others have.

God says this is one of the central ways we become enslaved... it’s called ENVY and coveting. [3]

And when He sets a people apart from the powers of this world... to live as those who are free... one

of the big 10...the 10 Commandments is “You must not covet” what your neighbor has. (Exodus

20:17) [4]

The truth is that we become enslaved by wanting what others have... that wanting is calling

coveting...and the underlying desire is called envy. envy is resentful desire of something

possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions).

Proverbs 14:30

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

James 3:16

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil

practice.

The root of what will consume the heart... is envy... focusing on a jealous desire to have what we

don’t have.

The heart at peace is the heart that embraces what it has.

It is here that gratitude can fill life... rather than the dissatisfaction that steals life.

Holiday season

Timely.... because every day we will be told it’s about getting something.

> What if we decide this holiday season to make it about appreciating what we have been given.

“If the Grass Looks Greener, It's Probably Astro Turf”

This leads to the next help in practicing gratitude......

2. Start being amazed at life.

Become mindful of what you have.

Psalm 118:24

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

If I stopped and considered what I have the opportunities... encounters... surroundings...I could list

100 things that were amazing.

Surrounded by air... warmth... home... connected to people... food to eat... and taste...