A Tone of Thanksgiving

I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. — Psalm 116:1-2

Take another look at these two verses from Psalm 116. Though not one key word about gratitude — thanks, thankfulness, grateful — appears here, the tone of thanksgiving is unmistakable.

The proclamation “I love” implies gratitude and communicates joy. The writer celebrates the reason for this love: “Because He has heard my voice and my supplications.” The vow to “call upon Him as long as I live” also reflects this speaker’s thankfulness for the way God hears and answers.

Even without the word thanks, these verses communicate gratitude. Do our lives do the same? Put differently, what do the ways we carry ourselves, speak, and communicate using facial expressions and body language suggest about our attitude toward life? Is it clear we’re grateful people?

Consider what retooling your attitude might need. Of course the “tone” of our lives alone cannot sufficiently express our gratitude to God or to the people in our world. But when our actions indicate a thankful heart, the words we speak ring truer.

Let’s express our thanks to God in every way we can.

Lord, show me how I can make a tone of thanksgiving unmistakable in my life.

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I Get To!

I will love You, O LORD, my strength. — Psalm 18:1

You’re familiar with the concept of I have to versus I get to, right? These opposite attitudes create very different outcomes.

• We have to clean up our own kitchens; we get to clean up a friend’s who has welcomed us for dinner.
• We have to wash the windows, or we get to clean off the winter grime so we can watch spring spring!
• We have to go to the grocery store — or we get to buy an abundance of food from the wide variety available on well-stocked shelves.
• We have to give thanks to God — or we get to thank Him for who He is and what He does for us.

God created human beings with free will; He didn’t construct robots and program us to love and praise Him. After all, forced love and worship would be fraudulent. God wants a relationship with us, and we build our friendship through expressing our love for Him in praise. But God never forces relationship or gratitude.

As we come to love God more, we no longer have to but more freely and joyfully get to offer our thanksgiving.

Thank You, Lord, that I never have to love and praise You! The truth is I get to love You and offer You my thanks!

Excerpted with permission from 365 Devotions for a Thankful Heart, copyright Zondervan.

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Your Turn

Let’s express our thanks to God in every way we can! He deserves not only our gratitude including a tone of thanksgiving. We get to! Come share your thoughts on being thankful. We want to hear from you! ~ Devotionals Daily