Having a Grateful Heart

Scripture: Songs 95:1-7 

1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 

3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 

4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 

5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 

6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 

7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

I wanted to share just a quick message with you in reference to the science of having a grateful heart. Being thankful and being grateful for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us and that He not only has bestowed but also continues to flow blessings like a flowing river. 

We're going to come into His presence with thanksgiving because of who He is. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Why? Because He is our God, for we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, I want to talk about having a grateful heart. It must begin by acknowledging who God is, and what He has done for us, the marvelous works that He has done for us that He has exemplified in our lives. This is where a grateful heart begins. When you see people who are ungrateful, they refuse to be satisfied with anything. And it seems like, it's like they're rejecting God's goodness, and his precious gift. 

A lot of times we manifest ungratefulness by complaining. And sometimes the funny thing is we don't even realize that we're doing it. But can we catch up ourselves and see that we are blessed beyond measure, and that God has done everything for us. And the wonder work that He has displayed in our life. We quickly switch that thing around. And we quickly repent and ask God to forgive us for murmuring, and complaining, with all the goodness that He has displayed in our life, the love, the grace, the mercy that He has displayed in our life, the wonderful works that He has performed in our life on our behalf.

A couple of tips on the greatness of being grateful.

1. Walking in Humility

We have a humble heart when we are grateful. And when we have a humble heart, we're focused on God, on the goodness of God and the grace of God.

So this young woman called Ruth in the Bible, she was a great example of someone walking in humility.

All that she had gone through, she had lost her husband, she had agreed to leave her native land, per se on her land that she was familiar with, and go into a foreign land with a mother in law, even through all that hurt and pain and sorrow. She still was a young woman that walked in humility, and walked with a grateful heart, walking in gratefulness, even in small things. And let me give you an example of what I mean, even in the small things in the life of this young woman, this Moabite woman named Ruth, she said, “Why have I found favor in your eyes? Why have you taken notice of me? I'm a foreigner. I'm so grateful that you have spoken kind only to me, I'm so grateful that I have found favor with you because I'm not one of your main servants. I'm a foreigner but I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful that you have allowed me to glean in the field with your maid servants.” She has such a humble heart and was grateful even for the small things. As for us we have to be grateful, even for the small things in life.

2. Don't take things for granted

Even the small things, the ordinary things and daily blessings that God blesses us with, let us not take those things for granted. Just to name a few, like, we have the opportunity to have clean water to drink and to take a bath. We have choices of food that we can eat; we have choices of restaurants that we can go to. Also, we have the opportunity and the ability to transport our sales to different places and where we want to go, we have the opportunity to just do so many different things. There are many little things of everyday blessings that we don't even acknowledge God or thanking God for. We have the opportunity to see beautiful sunlight. So just thanking God for little things every day, things that we just take for granted.

3. Don't overlook the hidden stubborn ones.

You know, we don't really realize that we're blessed until we don't have that particular thing. Even with the small things like for instance, you hurt your finger or something, you cut your finger on whatever, and you can't use your finger and your hands like you used to do. That's just privileged and to be blessed to be able to write effectively, with no pain or anything. So we don't realize how blessed we really are until we get an alert that we don't have that particular thing. And the more the particular thing isn't functioning the way that it always has that's when we really come to the knowledge of being grateful for that particular thing that we had. So we dare not take those things for granted. Always continue to be thankful even for the smallest things because it's not ours, its God's.

4. Remember to thank God in the midst of Trials and Tribulations

In James 1:2-4 it writes Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. But the word says that when we go through our trials and tribulations and circumstances and situations we’ll become mature.

5. Express gratitude in regular basis

It should be expressed publicly as well, that we feel that we don't take our loved ones for granting, express to them and let them know that you love them, let them know that you appreciate them, let them know that you are grateful to have them, let them know that you are thankful for the things that they do for you. Let them know that you love them as well. So give thanks in honor, and praise to God regularly and publicly, as well as our loved ones.

So having a grateful heart is really an intricate part of our relationship with the Lord. When you are a person that has a heart full of praise and thanksgiving it brings glory and honor to the Lord and not only that, but we are joyful. When we are thankful we will have a thankful spirit, when we have a grateful heart, we can be full of joy as well, even in the midst of our trials and circumstances, we can still have a heart full of joy, thanking God. We are to give God praise and thanksgiving and worship Him from our heart at all times, not just one day out of a year.

Today just to take a quiet moment, I want you to do me a favor, to just think about God's goodness. Just to think about his love. Our family, friends, children, all that He has done for us through last year 2021 and now that January 2022 is almost over just take a moment to think of His goodness even in the start of the year. 

So when we think about the many blessings we can't list them all, we can't count them all. The only thing we can do is say,

“God, I thank you for your many blessings. I thank you for all that you have done for me. I thank you because of how you have confidence in me, I thank you because of how you have provided for me, I thank you and I praise you because of how you've been with me through the storms. I thank you and I praise you because of how you haven't let me alone, You’re always beside me. God, I thank you. And I praise you because of how you have touched my body, and how you have healed my body. God, thank you. And I praise you because of how you have protected me through the dangerous scene and the danger unseen, also thank you for all your many blessings."

And just take a moment to just think about his goodness. I'm just asking you to just jot down two things that you want to give thanks to God for today. So I just want to remind you again for us to let's be mindful, to walk and operate in a heart and a mind and to have an attitude of being grateful.

Reflection Question:

1. How do you express your gratitude to God?

2. Do you thank God everyday even in the smallest things?

3. Can you commit to list down everyday what you are thankful to God?

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank You so much for reminding me that I have all I have today because You blessed me with it, including my family and everything around me. Thank you that even in the midst of difficult circumstances You are there in control of everything and to make me get out of it strong and humbled down.

I pray Lord that you will give me strength and humble me to acknowledge Your sovereignty in my life. I entrust to You my whole life and my decisions Lord.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen