Let Gratitude Be the First Sound
Study The Word
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Praise the Lord. There is nothing quite like gratitude. It is one of the gentlest forces I know, and yet it has the power to completely rearrange the way you see your life. Listen, it does not change your circumstances first. It changes you first, and from there, somehow, everything begins to look different.
I have not always known this. I remember seasons when I was so fixated on the perfect outcome, on things landing exactly the way I had pictured them, that a single change of plan could steal my whole mood. If it did not go my way, I did not just feel a little disappointed; I felt undone. And for the longest time I did not understand why disappointment hit me so hard. As I grew in Christ, I began to see the root of it. I grew up in an environment where things not going according to plan was catastrophised, where a setback felt like a disaster, because the people around me had never been given the capacity or the tools to hold something as ordinary as, “sometimes life simply doesn’t go the way we hoped.” Disappointment had no soft place to land. So I learned to brace, to grip, to need everything to be perfect.
But then something shifted. As I grew, I started to look around at my life, really look, and even in the hard, unfinished, not-going-to-plan situations, I realised I had so much to be grateful for. Sometimes the gift was simply that I was learning to do something differently. And the moment I let gratitude rise in me, my whole heart posture changed. Do you understand? Gratitude is not a mood. It is a spiritual principle. And the instant I began to actually enact it, it was as though a quiet miracle took place: my eyes were opened, and suddenly I could see so much more than the one thing I had been missing.
That is exactly what The Apostle Paul is inviting us into. Notice he does not say give thanks for every thing, as if we must pretend the hard things are good. He says in every thing give thanks. Right in the middle of it. Even mid-crisis. Because gratitude is the thing that lifts your eyes off of what is missing and fixes them back on Who is in control. The circumstance may not have an answer for you yet, but your God is still on the throne, and giving thanks is how you remember it.
And there is a beautiful secret hidden in the very word for thanksgiving: eucharisteō.
εὐχαριστέω eucharisteō give thanks – from eu (good) and charis (grace); at its heart, grace acknowledged.
Can you imagine? The same word that means thanksgiving carries grace right inside it. To give thanks is simply to turn around and recognise the grace that has been there all along: the grace you did not earn, the grace doing what you could never do on your own. That is why gratitude keeps us so wonderfully humble. Thanksgiving makes you realise, in the quietest and most freeing way, that it is God who does all things in and through you. He is the One who gives the grace. You are simply the grateful recipient of it.
This is also why gratitude is such a weapon in your hand when the crisis comes. The Apostle Paul tells us, “be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Look at the order: thanksgiving goes with the request, and then the peace of God comes and stands guard over your heart and your mind. Gratitude is not the denial of your battle. It is how you fight it well, and how your soul stays steady while you do.
So let me ask you the question I have learned to ask myself: what are you grateful for today? My own biggest point of gratitude right now is simply the ability to grow. Knowing that I do not have to stay the person I was yesterday, that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), and that He is not finished with me yet. Hallelujah, that is such a gift. Thanksgiving is the posture of a heart that has seen God move and knows the moving is not over.
So as His blessings keep overflowing in your life, would you let gratitude be the first sound from your lips? Not the complaint, not the comparison, not the worry, but the thanksgiving. Start there. And watch what it does to your eyes, and to your heart. What are you grateful for today?
Pray The Word
Heavenly Father, thank You. Thank You for the grace that does in and through me what I could never do on my own, and thank You that I get to be the grateful recipient of it. In every thing, even the things that have not gone according to my plan, I choose to give You thanks, because You are still in control. Let thanksgiving be the first sound from my lips and the posture of my heart, and let Your peace stand guard over my mind. I trust You, the One who is still moving and is not finished yet, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Speak The Word
I give thanks in every thing, because my God is in control of all things. Gratitude is my weapon, and I wield it boldly, even in the middle of the crisis. I refuse to fix my eyes on what is missing; I fix them on the One who holds it all. Thanksgiving is the first sound from my lips, and the peace of God guards my heart and my mind. I am grateful, I am humble, and I am growing, in the name of Jesus Christ!
Soul Wellness: An Introduction To Receiving Healing In Your Heart
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