Choosing Gratitude: Week 9

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!

Going Gratitudinal

It has been good and helpful these last eight weeks to focus on the subject of gratitude. But today we must determine to move past the attitude of having seasons of gratefulness to making gratitude a day-by-day, lifetime habit.

What does this look like? Is that even possible? How can we maintain this kind of attitude?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth gives the illustration of a Hungarian man who goes to his local rabbi saying, “Life is unbearable.” The man tells the rabbi that there are nine people living in his one-room house. As a solution, he is told to bring his goat into the room.

What??? “Just do it, and come back in a week,” the rabbi tells him.

The man comes back a week later, but he is worse off than before. The goat is a filthy mess and is wreaking havoc in that one-room house.

“Then go home and let the goat out,” the rabbi tells him, “And come back to me in a week.” The man comes back all smiles.

“Life is beautiful! We enjoy every minute now that there’s no longer any goat—only the nine of us!”

This is a funny illustration, but it is so true that our thankfulness many times is based on our perspective. On how we view the situation.

"I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalm 27:13-14

Hardships, tragedies, disappointments….they are going to happen. It’s not a matter of if they happen. It is when they happen.

​James 1:2-4 says, 

“Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness [patience]. And let steadfastness have its full effect, [Let patience have its perfect work] that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

These verses encourage us to be joyfully expectant of the trials of life. Don’t be surprised. Though Satan may be at work to discourage us and trip us up, God’s hand is in the details.

We must not have an attitude of dread—laying low and sinking into a depressive state when things don’t go the way we planned. That attitude will not be a part of our lives if we are living a day-by-day life of gratitude. ​

“I want your story to be rewritten into a tale of God’s grace.” —Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Consider the cross. The cross was a big part of Jesus’ earthly story. But God turned that pain and agony into victory. What Satan means for evil, God means it for good. (Genesis 50:20)

Though gratitude is ultimately a work of God in our hearts, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13), it also involves effort on our part. There are things we can DO to grow in gratitude.

“...Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12

God is working in us to change us into a child of His that is full of praise and thanksgiving, and at the same time, He expects us to be obedient, putting into practice those things that will promote gratitude in our hearts.

Nancy lists some of the things you and I can do that will keep us focused on gratitude each day of our lives and help us to grow in thankfulness.

1. Surrender your rights to God. 
   According to I Corinthians 6:20, my life is not my own. I am bought with a price, and with my body and my spirit, I must glorify Him. All is for His glory. It is not about my will being done, but it is about His will. I surrender my assumed rights to God.
   
   I must change my thinking.
   
   This is not my computer. This is not my phone. The food in my house is not my food. The car in my driveway is not my car. The house I slept in last night is not mine. Even my family is not my own.
   
   Having this mentality takes a weight off my shoulders. Life becomes more simple. As a Christian there is only one thing that belongs to me. Jesus. I rest in Him, my only possession. He is all I need. He is sufficient.
   
   I am His and He is mine.
   
   "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1).
   
   
2. Commit to a season of gratitude.
   Though our focus is on daily gratitude instead of seasonal, there is value in setting aside times for this grace. We will grow in gratitude as we seek to be intentional and purposeful about developing a heart of gratitude. Suggestions for seasons of gratitude that may involve a day, a week, or even a month, include:
   —A topical study on thankfulness in scripture.
   —Journaling what God has done for you – physical and spiritual blessings.
   —Completing the 30-day devotional guide in the back of the book Choosing Gratitude.
   —Reading other books about gratitude.
   
   
3. Take stock of your gratitude accounts.
   Who is it in your life that needs to be thanked? Letting those people know how much they mean to you and telling them specific things you appreciate about them can do wonders in encouraging them on the road of life. Start with those closest to you. Your husband, children, and other family members. We tend to take these dear ones for granted.
   
   One year while writing out a card for my husband’s birthday, I was prompted to make a list of the things I appreciated about him. Unexpectedly, the list grew until there was no space left. By that time tears were streaming down my cheeks. I had not realized how much there was to thank God concerning him. Several years later I was riding with him in his car and noticed the card sitting by the gear shift, tattered, and falling apart. He had been encouraged by it many times. That experience changed both of us.
   
   Think about your neighbors. Is there a neighbor who has been there for you? Checked your mail, put out your trash can, let you borrow tools, or has just been friendly? Have them over for coffee or lemonade on the porch. Ask them to stay for supper. Let them know you're grateful.
   
   Think about those in your community. The lady who cuts your hair and works you into her busy schedule. The man who works on your car. The mailman that goes the extra mile. 
   
   
4. Write a thank-you note.
   Have note cards with you every day, and if you have a few extra minutes while waiting at the doctor, you can write a note of appreciation. 
   
   Nancy tells of a family who almost lost their 29-year-old son, Jeff, in a terrible crash. Jeff had been away from God for a time, and on the way home he asked his parents what had happened while he lay unconscious in the hospital. They told him about the outpouring of love and support in so many ways by so many people. He was so moved that he asked to stop and buy some thank-you notes and immediately began letting people know what they meant to him and how thankful he was.
   
   Nancy said, “Grace had come in like a refreshing spring, and gratitude just kept rushing out in equal torrents.”
   
   Think about that. If grace pours in and no gratitude pours out, what is the result? Have you ever seen water that just sits there and doesn’t have an outlet? It gets stagnant. 
   
   One article online entitled, “What is Stagnant Water and How is it a problem?” explained it like this: “With no movement and aeration, stagnant water becomes a prime breeding ground for…a collection of bacteria or fungi. Left untreated, stagnant water often becomes home for dangerous diseases and pathogens…”
   
   The same is true when there is no thanks flowing out of our lives. We become stagnant. Our lives become a breeding ground for bacteria or sin, and if left untreated it becomes a danger. James 1:15 says that when sin is finished it brings forth death.
   
   Let’s keep the river of gratitude flowing through us. Blessings in and thankfulness going out.
   
   
5. Be grateful together as a body of Christ.
   The last suggestion for promoting and growing a heart of gratitude is to be grateful together as a body of Christ.
   
   As a church or a small group of believers focuses on gratitude, those who have been at odds with one another begin to come together. Christians are revived as their hearts are filled with praise and thanksgiving.
   
   “And it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, ‘For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever,’ the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14).
   
   Praise and thanksgiving are powerful and life-changing! Let’s make them a daily habit by choosing gratitude!

How are you going to choose gratitude this week?

---

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

---

Thanks for joining the InstaEncouragements weekly Christian link-up! We would really appreciate it if you would grab this IE link-up button, place it on your blog, and link back to this post. Thanks! Have an awesome week! 

If you're new to link-ups, checkout our IE LINK-UP page for a brief explanation and a list of other link-ups to participate in!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

---