A Grateful Heart

1 Chronicles 16:8
Oh, give thanks to the LORD. Call upon His name. Make known his deeds among the people!

Psalm 107:21
Oh,that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness. And for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Naked we came to this world, naked we shall leave.
We own nothing, we can create nothing. We deserve nothing. Everything we possess, is simply by the Grace of God. God is our Creator and the Creator of heaven and earth and all that is within it.
Be grateful for whatever you have, knowing it was never yours in the first place until God gave it to you.
He gives rain to the righteous and even the unrighteous.

Have you ever given and it was unappreciated?
Have you given your best at your job and felt unappreciated?
Have you felt ungrateful for an undeserved favour from a friend, colleague or even a stranger?
Have you ever been grateful to your parents?

Gratitude is often overlooked.

There is a tendency to grow a sense of entitlement towards our parents and even towards our salary. But is it right?
So many do not even have parents, so many more have irresponsible patents. No matter how little your parents can do appreciate them and appreciate God for them.

I know of a boss who always expects his staff to say "thank you sir" whenever he pays their salary.
Ridiculous right? But he is a man of God as well as a business man.
It was later I realised he was only trying to teach his staff the gratitude attitude.
Even though we did work for our salary, we probably even lost sleep over it, probably lost weight over it, probably even got queried over it. We probably deserve more for the value of service we put in. Truly, there are more qualified graduates without jobs. There are even colleagues of ours that came out with better degrees still looking for jobs. There are more intelligent minds than ours that are now in Psychiatry, all their degree and abilities have become useless.

I heard of a lady who didn't know she had so much testimonies until the Holy Spirit had to probe her for them. She was in a fellowship when a minister overtaken by the Spirit suddenly confronted her to share her testimonies. She even denied having any until the attention forced her to start speaking.
By the time she was through, everyone was wowed at how much God had done for her and is still doing in her life.
Often times we get so accustomed to God's favours and blessings rhat we don't even appreciate them anymore. We should never grow a sense of entitlement.

We should learn to be grateful, even for the little things.
When we thank God for what He has done, He moves even mightily to show off with us in bigger and greater ways.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:15-17


Prayer:
Father, forgive our ungratefulness. Give us a grateful heart. Open our eyes to see your glory in our lives. Do much more in our lives, that Your name and testimonies will never cease from our lips and in all that concerns us in Jesus name
Amen.