When was the last time you thanked God?
In my personal experience, I started to recognise every time I prayed, I’d be asking God for more than I’d be thanking Him for. Some days I’d even forget to say thank You at all.
I decided to make a change in my life. I started a gratitude journal. At 9pm Every night a reminder pops up on my phone at telling me to practise gratitude. I take out a couple of minutes in my day to thank God for the things He has done in my life.
As small as this step sounds, it's been life changing so I want to share with you things I've learnt and how taking time to thank God daily can change your life.
What is gratitude?
First things first, what is gratitude? I would describe it as being intentionally thankful for the things in your life.
Expressing gratitude is a powerful tool that can have transformative effects in our lives. Take the Psalmist David for example. He endured some crazy hard times, but if you read through some of the things he wrote, he continually practised gratitude and gave thanks to God even when his enemies pursued him or he was overwhelmed with depression.
How can practising gratitude help me?
As humans we naturally gravitate to asking for what we want, I think it’s tied to our selfish nature. By practising gratitude, we take our minds off ourselves and place them on what God is doing instead. The most powerful moments of gratitude are finding things to be thankful for on the days that you least feel like saying thanks.
As those of you who have already read my blog know, I’ve struggled with mental health challenges in the past. Every now and again the devil tries his best to remind me and take me back to those unhelpful thoughts. Taking time to thank God each day is like medicne for my mind. Instead of focusing on the negative things and allowing my brain to spiral out of control, I focus on the positives.
I could sit here telling you how much practising gratitude has helped me in my life but the truth is, you have to experience it for yourself. Here are some tips I’d like to share with you about how to practise gratitude in your life.
3 ways to practise gratitude in your life
1. Find, Recite and Memorise Bible Verses of Gratitude
The Bible is filled with verses that encourage us to adopt a grateful heart. I have already mentioned the example of David and if you do a quick search you’ll find hundreds of Psalms riddled with words of praise and thanksgiving to God.
2. Make a habit of thanking God in your prayers
At a youth retreat one year I learnt this incredible method of prayer called ACTS. Let me walk you through it.
A - Adoration
Take time to give God glory for who He is and what He has done
C - Confession
Confess your sins with a truly repentant heart
T - Thanksgiving
Give God thanks for all He has done and what He is doing in your life
S - Supplication
Lay all your burdens down at Jesus’ feet and take time to ask Him for the things you want, need and desire in life. Don’t forget to also pray for others needs.
You don’t necessarily have to pray in this order, but adding a structure to your prayer can help you be more intentional about practising gratitude.
3. Start a Gratitude Journal
I might be bias but this is my favourite method. Get a physical journal, use your phone notes app or my personal favourite notion. Each day, set aside 5 minutes to write down 3 things you are grateful for. If you’d like some additional steps I also like to write down why I am grateful for those things and what in my day stood out to me, usually it’s something that made me smile.
An example of my journal may look something like this:
Today I am grateful for:
My family - they are supportive and kind
My friends - we got together last night for a social and it was wholesome
Sabbath - I appreciated the rest so much more this week because I was tired and the week was so busy!
One thing that stood out to me today was the love I felt from my new church family. I haven’t been there very long but someone picked me up to take me to church, I was asked to be involved in the service and then someone took me back to their house to feed me and made me feel like I was a huge part of their family. That made me smile today.
Here are just 3 ways you can start to have more gratitude in your life but I know these are just a select few that have worked for me. This week’s challenge is to make gratitude a part of your month! Whether you start that journal or stick Bible verses of thanks around your house, get into the habit of giving God the glory He deserves!
Join our 10 days of gratitude challenge.
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