Gratitude Changes You

Just look at us! We’ve become overcome with gratitude! Gratitude can’t occupy the same area of space in your heart as carping and complaining. Which will it be? The truth that emerges from the center of you, from the core of your being, is revealed to you by the One who chose you, and this is worth celebrating. You’re possessed by God, you’re surrendered and blessed. As His loved child you possess all things.

It’s time to be grateful.

Look for small things to celebrate. The way your fingers move across the page of this book, the touch of sunlight on your neck, the sound of leaves scraping against the window. Pay attention to the small things and be grateful.

For who has despised the day of small things?” — Zechariah 4:10

When you purpose in your heart to be grateful, you’ll thank and praise the Lord all day long for no reason at all. You’ll thank Him for Himself alone, and that’s the purest form of gratitude to God.

You no longer need answered prayer to be grateful. You no longer require things work out the way you planned to be grateful (though we rejoice and celebrate these blessings!).

Your personhood now and forever is His, and you can exclaim with a sigh of grateful relief, “It is well with my soul.”

The studies made of the effects of gratitude on the overall well-being of a person are unanimously positive. It proves one thing: God created us to be grateful. A thankful heart frees you to love life.

Nothing opens the gates of Heaven like gratitude. In gratitude all things are yours.

Gratitude has been shown to reduce health complaints too numerous to name, but I’ve had clients tell me their ulcers have vanished, their headaches are gone, their skin has cleared up, and their bruxism (teeth grinding) has ended. Gratitude must start and end your day.

Deep inside the grateful heart is the treasure of the joy that the whole world seeks.

What do you need to be grateful?

An inmate serving a life sentence in a Texas prison wrote the following poem. He sent it to the prison ministry spearheaded by Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister.

A THANKSGIVING DANCE

I own nothing but these arms,
So I swing them,
So I clap them.
I have nothing but these legs,
So I lift them in dance.
I have nothing but my own hips,
So I sway them in a trance.
Except I may not even own this body
— but I move.
Even still I may not say where I go,
Yet I possess my soul.
“Dance, dance. Dance,” said He.
“I am Lord of the Dance” said He.
For all these I give thanks
To the One I owe,
(O my soul dance)
the fact that I exist,
that I breathe and that I know
the One from Whom all blessings flow.1

(Used by permission)

1. William Backus and Marie Chapian, Telling Yourself the Truth (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2000), used by permission.

Excerpted with permission from Quiet Prayer by Marie Chapian, copyright Marie Chapian.

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Your Turn

It’s time to be grateful! What are you thankful for? We want to hear from you! Come share what you are thanking the Lord for this week! ~ Devotionals Daily