Living In Gratitude

 By: Grace Metzger

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭18

Recently I spoke with someone I’ve known for a few years. This is a man who’s complained about his job every single day since I’ve met him. At the moment he’s been on medical leave for almost a month. And today, I gotta hear this man say that he’s become grateful for his job since being away from me. After the conversation, I thought to myself, how can this man only realize his gratitude after being away from it? Why did he have to go through something awful in order to see the goodness that is in his job? As I was thinking this, I felt God start to shame me a little bit because I was judging this man so harshly for not being grateful for his job when I myself, I’ve been complaining about my job all week. I started to think about how I’m never grateful for anything until I lose it. I think it’s a real common fact in the world today we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone. 

This might surprise people, but I am a very negative person. My mind focuses on the bad things more often. So after I felt a shame from God, I decided that every morning for two weeks straight I was going to write down one thing I was grateful for. At first so easy I was grateful for my family, my home, food on my table, etc. After a bit, I had some difficulties finding things to be grateful for, but when I realized that I was becoming more intentional and looking for things to be grateful for it. I realize that my day started having a more positive outlook.

It’s very easy in the world today to become a negative person, everyone thinks that they have a worst life and that everything constantly goes wrong. But when we start looking for the positives in our life, we realize we have so many things to be thankful for. God is blessing in our life every single day, but we can’t see it because we are focused more on complaining. 

giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I think of it like the Israelites they were led out of Egypt and instead of focusing on that amazing thing, they decided complain and cry that they didn’t have the comforts that they wanted. Are we living our life like this the Israelites? Are we so focused on the small things that we miss ginormous blessings that God is giving us every single day? Are we too busy complaining to God to thank him for what he’s doing in our life?

This week I challenge you every single morning to find one thing you’re thankful for. You’ll start noticing a difference in your life. Instead of complaining to God 24/7 now you’re focused on giving Him thanks and praising His glory grace to you. 

Discussion question: how are you incorporating thankfulness into your daily life?