It’s already the fifth month of the year—what are you grateful for? There’s someone I know who inspires me to be thankful every single day. She runs a daily gratitude series, sharing something she’s grateful for each day. I’ve noticed that this simple habit helps her stay calm, even through life’s most difficult storms.
That made me pause and think: How beautiful is it to live in a state of gratitude—no matter the season? Before we get into details of what it means to express gratitude, I’ll like to tell us what gratitude is not. Gratitude is not…
Borne out of fear
The first thing to know is that gratitude is not borne out of fear. Thanking someone because you’re afraid that if you don’t something bad may happen to you is not true gratitude.
If there’s anything that God loves and honors, it is sincerity. If your thanksgiving is not coming from the sincerity of your heart then don’t bother with it. If your heart isn’t right, God can sense it and such offering becomes abominable–-even if it is an offering of thanksgiving. The positioning of your heart is very important. Which brings me to the next point.
These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Isaiah 29:13 NIV
Forced
Whenever I’m in church and I hear the minister try to “motivate” people to praise God, I get so sad. Gratitude should not be forced, it should come naturally. If you are truly grateful, it will reflect in your actions. If I have to remind you why you need to thank me, then are you really grateful? God is not interested in lip-service or doing things just for the sake of it. The positioning of your heart is very important. God loves it when we do things cheerfully and not out of compulsion. (2 Cor. 9:7)
Transactional
Of all the things people mistake gratitude to be, this is the most common. I have seen many people say gratitude is an avenue to get more. “Thank God so He can do more for you”. What then happens if He doesn’t do more? Do we stop being grateful then? If we are going to thank God, then let’s make sure to do it right. Thank Him for what He has done, and not because what you are expecting that He will do. That is the right way to give thanks.
Seasonal
“This is my season of thanksgiving”. If you’re a person of the spirit, you should not have seasons to be the thankful. Every time, every season should be for thanksgiving. It is in the will of God for us to dwell in gratitude, and not to shuffle in and out of it. (Hab. 3: 17-18)
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV
What is gratitude?
Gratitude is an expression of thankfulness and appreication. It is a posture of your heart and not just merely saying thank you. True gratitude—as the Scriptures explain—flows from a heart that recognizes the goodness of God, not because of what He might do, but because of who He is. It’s sincere, joyful, and ever-present.
Why gratitude?
From kindergarten classes and nursery rhymes, we learnt that the normal response to someone doing something good for us is gratitude. This principle still stands in our relationship with God.
It is the will of God. I believe this is a good point to end my argument. As children of God, we are called to a life of obedience and submission to God’s will. If it is the will of God for us to dwell in gratitude, then that is simply what we must do. Nothing less than that. Nevertheless, this instruction is not too hard to follow through with. He gives us every reason to be grateful. (1 Thess. 5:18)
We thank God because He has done good things for us. If you’re looking for reasons to be ungrateful, you will find a truckload of them. Likewise, if you’re looking for reasons to be grateful, you will find way too many. For every believer, the single most important thing to be grateful for is salvation. There is assurance that regardless of how terrible the world is, there is peace on the other side.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Psalm 103:2 NIV
Believers don’t stress this point well enough. When the disciples came back from their very first mission, they were so excited that they cast out demons and did all of those miraculous things. But Jesus told them not to rejoice because of those things instead to rejoice that their names were written in the book of life. That is, they should set their joy and gratitude on things that are above. (Lk. 10:18-20)
If more Christians anchored their gratitude in salvation, the Church—and the world—would reflect more joy and peace. Gratitude isn’t just a polite response—it’s a powerful spiritual discipline that keeps our hearts grounded and eyes fixed on what truly matters.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 107:1 (NIV)
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