Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Gratitude Is Everything

You may not hear the end of my trek through the discipline of gratitude because I am still learning much in this area.  Yes, I say it is a discipline because, let's face it, being grateful doesn't come naturally.  It has to be cultivated and practiced.

I am becoming more convinced as the weeks go by that by expressing gratitude to God for the things He gives and the way He's working is the key to being joyful and peaceful.  We need to get our eyes off of our circumstances and fix our eyes on our God and His goodness.  We are bent toward being whiners rather than worshipers.  At least, I am.  How about you?

Finding myself at the center of an emotional storm, I could sense I was beginning to lose my grasp on the peace that comes with being near to God the longer the suffering continued.  Yesterday I decided to go back to the fundamental exercise of writing down what I can see above the trial, the ways that God is working in me, the things He's teaching me, and the way He is helping me.  When I finished writing, my heart was still.  My thoughts were quiet.  The Lord had my full attention.  I remembered that God is good.

I'm slowly learning that expressing gratitude to God is everything.

 

If you need a tool to help you get started in developing gratitude, check out this link from Revive Our Hearts ministry: Growing in Gratitude: 30-day challenge

1 comment:

  1. Hi Liz, thanks for visiting my blog! I've enjoyed reading yours as well! Thanks for sharing your experience of gratitude- its so great reading this book and hearing about it from other people. Thanks for encouraging me to do the 30 day devo, so far I've done about 10 days. Harder than I thought, but sweeter than I thought too. Thanks for blogging, I'll stop by again!

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