November 4, 2022
Grateful
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. (Psalms 9:1 NLT)
My child, did you know gratitude is a positive emotion that involves being thankful and appreciative and is associated with several mental and physical health benefits? When you experience gratitude, you feel grateful for something or someone in your life and respond with feelings of kindness, warmth, and other forms of generosity. Gratitude is to be thankful. This is the month of gratitude and thankfulness. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, ‘rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. When gratitude overwhelms me, I cannot keep quiet; I must express it! I challenge you during this month daily to write down five things you are grateful for. As I am waking early in the morning, I cannot keep from expressing my love to God the Father. I cannot stop thanking Him for being so good to me, He doesn’t have to but that is who He is. I cannot keep from thanking and praising Him. I declare daily, ‘thanks be to God who always causes me to triumph! (1 Corinthians 15:57) I have discovered the more grateful you are the more you have to be grateful for.
Many years ago, I was going through a dark season and took eighteen months off to heal and be restored emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I spend a lot of time in the secret place allowing the Healer, to heal me inside out. At the end of that period, I was talking to God one day and I asked Him why He wasn’t blessing me. I said that at the time because I could not see the monetary blessing. He said, ‘I have been blessing you! You could have been in a mental hospital and owe hundreds of thousands of dollars but you owe nothing, and I healed you!’ I said, ‘Father God, it is so true, I repent. Thank you, Sir!’ I discovered just because you may not see a monetary blessing doesn’t mean God isn’t blessing you in other areas of your life. If you and your family are healthy, God is blessing you! If you have a good marriage, God is blessing you! If your family is together and gets along peacefully and in unity, God is blessing you! Be grateful! Stop and count your blessings today! Take time to be grateful, thanking God for blessing you and your family. Express your gratitude to your spouse for being so good to you. Guess what? Be prepared for his/her to bend over backward to bless you! Gratitude is a powerful force, and it will shift your circumstances! Go ahead and try it!
