Living Successfully - God's Way!Sample

Be Thankful All The Way!

In my quest for success, one thing I have learned is that the potency of gratitude should never be undermined. In fact, to refuse to be grateful and ignore this spiritual activity (yep, you read that right) is to limit your relationship with Godly success.

Gratitude is not just about saying thank you. It is about acknowledging, appreciating, and advancing the goodness and graciousness of God. It’s recognising His presence and His working power in and through your life.

The best way to start is by saying thank you.

My mother taught my siblings and me to always be thankful and appreciative. I could never understand (back then) but that meant always saying “thank you” and expressing gratitude for something someone had done or said today, and then again tomorrow and then again the next day, and as necessary in the future, recalling that act that you were thankful for in the past. In fact, if we forgot to say thank you a few days later, we risked getting in trouble.

I couldn’t understand why. I thought it was overrated, but I still do it today and encourage my children to do the same. Why? Well, because I have come to learn that the benefits of thankfulness are unlimited. It is a spiritual discipline and one of the principles of life that God has allowed to transcend every religion.

Did you know that…

• When you say thank you, especially for your successes along the way, you acknowledge that God is at work in your life and that the things you enjoy are not as a consequence of some special power or luck that you have.
• When you say thank you, you recognise that you actually have more than enough, more than you could achieve by yourself.
• When you say thank you, you open up yourself to receive more, a well of abundance, and just like the leper that came back to say ‘thank you’, you get more than you bargained for (he was healed but his expressed thanks, made him whole).

An expression of gratitude is an undeniable secret to Godly success, and any form of perceived success achieved without a grateful heart will soon fade away. It’s no wonder the bible encourages thankfulness over and over, such that the lack of it (ingratitude) equates to sin.

Here are 4 ways that you can actively give thanks:

1. Always start and end your prayers with an expression of your gratitude
2. Keep a daily gratitude journal and take note of all the things, people, and events you are thankful for
3. Seize every opportunity that presents itself to say thank you with your words and actions, and create moments of thanksgiving
4. Start with God, but let your loved-ones know that you appreciate them every single day!

Thank you for reading through this devotional. I pray that you have become more empowered and inspired to live purposefully, achieve more and win in life.

This plan has been brought to you by Debbie Akinkunle in conjunction with Wisdom Truth Ministries and has been adapted from the book 9 Secrets to Living Successfully. We would love to connect with you. Please visit our dedicated YouVersion page by clicking here for more content and information.