One of my regular vocabularies has to do with Thanksgiving. I cannot count the number of times I repeat these words daily; “Lord, Demola is grateful.” I usually voice it so loud that if you are around me, you would wonder if I had just hit a jackpot. My wife and children often repeat that statement after me. In fact, my daughter now says it on her own. Indeed, gratitude is contagious.
Friend, gratitude is contagious! What are you infecting people around you with (Matthew 5:13-16, Ephesians 4:29)? What kind of a father, wife, friend, colleague, or church member are you? What do people catch from you each time they relate with you? What kind of statements come out of your mouth, especially unconsciously? Are you given to gratitude or complaints? What is your default response to life?
Your sense of gratitude is a reflection of your level of understanding (Psalms 103:1-2). Listen, we are not grateful because everything around us is perfect. We are grateful because we serve a perfect God who is perfecting everything for us (Psalms 138:8). Gratitude means seeing the hand of God in the midst of the circumstances of your life.
Gratitude is knowing that God is at work even if it does not seem so (2 Corinthians 5:7). The truth is, you would always speak based on what you see or focus on. If you focus on the thorns among the roses of your life, you won’t stop complaining. But if you choose to see the roses among the thorns, gratitude would flow easily.
Gratitude is not an advice or a suggestion. It is a command of scriptures (1 Thessalonians 5:18). An ungrateful person is living in disobedience without knowing. God warns that we must never take His acts for granted in our lives (Malachi 2:1-2). It has been said that if you take any act of God for granted, you are bound to be grounded in life.
Nothing is too small to be grateful for. What you don’t see as a big deal is actually a big deal. Being alive is a big deal. Being in health is a big deal. Having a dream or vision to pursue is a big deal. It is a function of understanding and perspective (2 Samuel 6:14-23). If you don’t want things to continue to go down in and around your life, let gratitude always go up from you to God (Psalms 67:5-7, Joel 1:12). What are you grateful for today?
‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria