Rock-Solid Gratitude: It’s About Where I Look

Scripture frequently reminds us to practice gratitude. In America, we have much to be thankful for—of all nations in the world, we are probably the most blessed in material possessions and freedoms. It is an easy thing to quickly make a list of those pleasures. But if we stop there with things and pleasures that can disappear in a moment, is not this a precarious state of mind?

Perhaps God is inviting us to change our gaze.  

Together, let’s deepen our experience of gratitude. Let’s intentionally pull back the curtain of transient things to gaze with deliberation upon spiritual reality. For these things cannot be shaken and cannot be altered. They’re already ours. This reality is bound by neither place or time and is in fact, eternal. This gratitude practice is a deliberate re-training of our thought patterns.  

How can we create an unshakeable attitude of gratitude?  Perhaps it is by focusing on that which is unshakeable….

A few suggestions to get us started:

• The wonder of salvation.  
We must never get tired of this!  Colossians 1:21-22: “And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.” Colossians 2:13-14 is also a favorite of mine: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” Make a habit of recounting to yourself (and everyone else) the wonderful story of how God reached down and rescued you.  What was your life like before Him? How did He reach you? How has your life changed since His rescue?
 
• Where you live.  
Colossians 3:1-4 reminds us of where we live and where to look. If we’re a follower of Christ, our life is now hidden in Christ, with God! I may think my address is a certain street in Tennessee, but the reality is I’m just visiting there—I don’t live there. My home is eternally secure. Anything here is just a rental…..  Remember this is just a road trip to our certain destination—in heaven. With Jesus!

• You belong.    
That’s right—YOU BELONG.  (see below)

• God is our Father.  
If saved, we have a relationship with God—the perfect, loving Father-- by irrevocable adoption into His forever family. This adoption and continual welcome into my Father’s presence is not conditional upon my behavior. It is conditional upon my redemption and adoption. This is my new identity provided at Christ’s expense. I am beloved by the Father. Meditate on Ephesians 1.

• How long it lasts.  
It’s forever. Irrevocable. Settled. God doesn’t change His mind (the fact that He won’t change His mind about me is HUGE in my gratitude list). He knew the worst about me, and chose to adopt me anyway. Meditate on Numbers 23:19-21.

• Magnitude of His reach. 
The older I get, the more I realize how even my “best” performance is tainted with the stain of sin. The first time I realized this, I was horrified, grieved, and then on my knees in gratitude for the mercy of God Who had loved me and remained in relationship with me all those years. He hadn’t rejected me! He had still heard my prayers! And then I was overwhelmed with the love of God Who has known this all along—and loved me still…….  

• His sufficiency.   
He is the One Who provides all that is needed for the journey to His side. Consider his sufficiency:  2 Peter 1:3-9…”His divine power has granted to you all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him……”

Take a moment to consider a bridegroom who sees a dirty, filthy, rebellious slave and chooses her for His bride. He redeems her. Then He Himself cleans her up. Then He clothes her in a beautiful wedding garment. Then He provides everything she could ever need, eternally. All at His own expense. This is our God.
 
One more reminder. This kind of gratitude is a safeguard for us. It’s why Paul was able to suffer as he did and not lose heart: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…”  (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1)

This season of Thanksgiving until the day we see Him face to face, let’s be a people who keep that curtain drawn back, open the blinds, and gaze with adoring eyes upon the One Who is All we could ever want or need. That, my friends, is rock-solid gratitude because He is.