Living a Joyful LifeSample

The Power of Gratitude

1Thess. 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I have a journal called the gratitude journal, where I document the things I’m grateful for in life. Why is this important to me? I have realized that as humans, the more we reach out for more in life, the easier it is to forget God’s goodness in the past. We can be so fixated on the next that we forget where we are coming from. We can get so frustrated with slight delays, be it the next car, the next job, or the next breakthrough, that we forget our past miracles. Remembering the tough seasons we survive is a good anchor in our waiting seasons.

There are probably challenges and problems you never knew how you survived, but through the help of God, you did. Maybe it’s a health issue, a job loss, an accident, or a legal matter. At the time, all hope seemed lost, and there wasn’t a way out, but God came through. Don’t just gloss over these experiences as if they don’t matter; write them out as points of gratitude. Remember, a grateful life is a joyful life.

The goal is not to stay in the past. No, life has to be progressive, and the best of God is never your past miracles, but while you forge ahead, remember, acknowledge and document the things you are grateful for. In the wilderness, the Israelites experienced miracles upon miracles, manna from heaven, water from the rock, and an abundant supply of quails as meat. They had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, but just like many of us, they forget all of these, and one by one, they almost all perish in the wilderness.

The goal of the devil is to keep us focused on what is not working yet in our lives and consequently lure us to deny God. We see this in the life of Job. He inflicted him with so much pain and tragedy that at its climax, his wife said to him, curse God and die. But Job stood his ground, and in the end, God gave him back double for everything he lost.

You cannot live a joyful life if you are not intentional about your gratitude. Write down at least three things you are grateful for today. The more grateful you are, the more things you will have to be grateful for. The Bible says, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." (Phil 4:6).