Choosing Gratitude: Week 6

Hello, friend! Are you ready to begin your journey toward greater joy? Join us for our Summer 2023 Book Club-Style Bible Study. We're reading "Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy" by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. This book challenges and equips us to live a life of gratitude.

What is gratitude? Gratitude is a choice. It is a decision to focus on the good things in our lives, even when things are difficult. When we choose gratitude, we are choosing to be happy and content. Why is gratitude important?

Gratitude has many benefits, including:

• Increased happiness and well-being
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Improved physical health
• Stronger relationships
• Increased creativity and productivity

GRAB YOUR BOOK HERE AND LET'S GET STARTED!

"When we take simple blessings for granted as if they were owed to us, or conversely, when we start to think that our house, our car, our wardrobe, or our general station in life is beneath what we deserve, ingratitude finds all the oxygen it needs to thrive.

One of the unseemly side-effects of all the effort and energy our society has invested in building our individual and collective self-esteem is that our culture is now rife with this super-high level of deservedness." —Nancy DeMoss, Choosing Gratitude

So how do we cultivate a life of gratitude? There are many ways to cultivate gratitude, here are a few:

• Keep a gratitude journal.
• Write thank-you notes to people who have blessed you.
• Spend time each day reflecting on the good things in your life.
• Express your gratitude to God in prayer.

Join us for this study! Each weekly post will be posted on Tuesday mornings at 9:00 here on the blog, June 6 - August 1. Feel free to discuss the book and share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. Let's make cultivating gratitude a priority in our lives this summer!

​How Can I Say Thanks?

Amidst all the things on this earth and in the spiritual realm that we can be thankful for, surely there must be more than one way we can express our gratitude…and there is. Here are three practical ways to cultivate a heart of gratitude. These practices help us to not just be grateful out of duty, but to be a Christian whose lifestyle is one of gratitude, so that when we come to the end of our lives this is what people remember about us.

1. Speak Up
   This is probably the easiest and most common way to express gratitude. But speaking up is not as common in our lives as we would think. If you are like me, as you go throughout a day there are many reasons that you find to be thankful:
   —The flowers that are sprouting earlier in the Spring than usual
   —A parking space that becomes available at just the right minute
   —Getting a refund in the mail that you didn’t expect
   —Or just getting up in the morning after having a good night sleep
   
   Hopefully we are noticing these and similar blessings every day. God forbid that we would go through the day oblivious with a negative attitude and complaining spirit. 
   
   Are we speaking up? 
   
   Hebrews 13:15 says, “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.”
   
   Thanking Him. Giving credit to Him with our lips. Audibly. 
   
   “Thankful thoughts ought to be translated into thankful words.” —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
   
   There are a lot of grateful thoughts throughout a day, but how often do we put them into words?
   
   I have searched the Scriptures to find examples of someone thanking another person, but what I have found instead are examples of thanking God for that person.  
   
   I teach a ladies Sunday School class, and on occasion I have asked a friend to teach while I am away. What follows is a word of sincere “thank you” given to her. Biblical thanksgiving for what she has done should not only include “thank you, friend,” but also, “I thank God for you being willing to teach. He enabled you and gave you the words to say. I am thanking Him for you today, friend.”
   
   Paul was one of the most grateful people in the Bible. But instead of thanking people in His letters, He said, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” Philippians 1:3
   
   In Colossians 1:3-4, Paul says, "We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints..."
   
   Ultimately, all thanks goes to God, and it is a wonderful thing that we can worship Him in this way and in the presence of others—saved or unsaved. By doing this we are magnifying Him.
   
   Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says she and her husband regularly pray with strangers on the spot that God brings across their path. That prayer, I’m sure, includes praise and thanksgiving. And what a testimony that is!
   
   All glory goes to God, and we need to say it with our lips. And when people thank us, we need to deflect that thanks to God.
   
   "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, and all Your saints shall bless You! They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom and tell of Your power." Psalm 145:3-4, 6-7, 10-11
   
   "Spoken words of praise and thanks have power to dissipate that spirit of heaviness that sometimes weighs us down and clings to us like a wet blanket. And they have the power to do the same for others." —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
   
   
2. Sing Out
   "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him." Psalm 28:7
   
   "Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!" Psalm 147:7
   
   Singing, thanksgiving, and praise go hand-in-hand.
   
   After the rebuilding of the wall under Nehemiah’s leadership, Nehemiah 12:27 says, “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgiving and with singing, with cymbals, harp, and lyres.”
   
   Do you sing? Do your children and grandchildren hear you singing? And as a side-note, they do not care whether you sing on tune or off tune. To hear Mama or Grandma or Grammy or Nana sing is a sweet thing they will never forget. 
   
   If you have a heart of thanksgiving, it will come out of your mouth, or somehow there will be songs of praise around you.
   
   There is one song I love to sing to my grandchildren, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There’s just something about that name.” Whenever I begin to sing it, they get very still, look at me, and smile. So sweet!
   
   Singing will lift your head and warm your heart. Where do you like to sing? The car? The shower? The kitchen? Anywhere is a good place and anytime is a good time. We were taught that it is rude to sing at the table, but sometimes I do it anyway if my grandchildren are with me. Time is too short and a song of thanksgiving to God is too precious.
   
   Here is something to try. Open the Bible and make up a tune to go with a verse of thanksgiving and sing it over and over. Make it your verse for the day. It will lift your spirits and you most likely will have that verse memorized by the end of the day.
   
   "There’s something about singing our thanks, not just talking it, that imbeds gratitude even more deeply into our souls." —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
   
   
3. Kneel down
   When was the last time you kneeled to worship, or lay flat on your face?
   
   This is the position of humility, and it just does something to your heart. God is pleased to see us in this humble position, and sometimes it takes Him bringing some really hard things into our lives to bring us down to our knees in humility.
   
   Nancy tells the story of a man, Ed Johnson, who lost his daughter in an accident. She was killed by a drunk driver. When he was told the news, he said, “Before we ask God why He took Karen home in a head-on-collision a few hours ago, lets’ thank Him for the seventeen years we had her.” That is humbling yourself and getting on your knees in a sense. That is saying, “Lord, yes, I do have a lot of questions, but I’m going to thank you.”
   
   "There’s nothing wrong with being totally honest with God, coming before Him with our hurts and pains and intercessions, imploring Him to help and heal. But prayer is more than asking. It is a vehicle to worship and gratitude." —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
   
   When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave them a guideline:
   —Praise and thanksgiving 
   —Repentance 
   —Asking
   —Supplication for others 
   
   When thinking about your own prayers, would you say that they are balanced? Or are they very heavy on the asking and very light on the thanksgiving? 
   
   When praying for others or ourselves, we need to be balanced. Pray with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 2:1 says, “First of all, then, I urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.”
   
   In Daniel 2:23 we are given encouragement from the life of Daniel to be grateful both privately and publicly. Yes, we Speak up, sing out, and kneel down privately, but also publicly. 
   
   When Daniel prayed and asked God to show him the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, when it was given to him notice that he did not jump up and run to deliver the news hoping that he would solve the riddle for Nebuchadnezzar, so to speak, before any of the other wise men.
   
   What did Daniel do instead? He first gave thanks privately.
   
   "To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king's matter." Daniel 2:23
   
   Daniel 6:10 then shows us Daniel’s public display of thanks while kneeling down. 
   
   When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. 
   
   "I will give thanks to You, O Lord among the peoples; I will sing praise to You among the nations." Psalm 57:9
   
   Oh, that we would magnify the Lord God with a spirit of thanksgiving so that all will see and know that He alone deserves the glory and praise!

 Choose gratitude by speaking up, singing out, and kneeling down.

How will you choose gratitude this week?

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Christian Gratitude Journal for Women

This ​Christian Gratitude Journal for Women is produced by Pretty Simple Press. It's a 52-week inspirational guide to a life with more prayer and less stress.

This Gratitude Journal is designed to help us cultivate an attitude of gratitude. It's a self-exploration journal that encourages us to focus on being thankful for what we have. We'll focus on the big things in life, as well as the simple joys. Each well-designed and deeply-inspirational weekly spread contains space for us to journal. We'll journal three things we are thankful for. We will also discover thoughtful weekly Scripture.

If we begin each day by writing down three things we are thankful for we're on our way to a lifetime of gratitude. Whether it's a family member, a dear friend, or the ability to read a good book. We will begin each day on the right path.

Grab this journal and begin a daily habit of focusing on the blessings!

GRAB YOUR CHRISTIAN GRATITUDE JOURNAL FOR WOMEN HERE

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