Living In Gratitude

I have been thinking about the times we live in and how we can tend to focus on the negatives in our lives. Even as Christians, life can be difficult, full of sadness, worries, fear, disappointment and loss. We all go through times of asking where the Lord is in these times. When life feels insurmountable, what do we do in these situations and how do we live our daily lives as followers of Jesus?

I was listening to a podcast last week about how Jesus was a Jew and some of the Jewish festivals he would have taken part in and been integral to his life. One of these was a festival of gratitude and thanksgiving called Sukkot. It is where the Jewish people remember the Exodus when Moses led them out of slavery. The Jewish people at this time come together and focus on all the things they are grateful to God for.

For the Jewish people, blessings and thanksgiving are part of their everyday life. It's a relationship between themselves and God that draws connections in the human experience, to the world around them and draws them closer to God in their gratitude. Their sages of tradition recommend that the ultimate blessing is to find 100 things to be grateful for each day. That might sound a lot but as you practice gratitude, you notice more and more to be thankful for.

Living a life of gratitude and celebrating the world around you can at times be difficult. We live in the modern world - a world that focuses on the negatives and what needs to be fixed with crisis after crisis. Yet learning to be thankful changes your viewpoint. You do not need to look for the outstanding to be grateful for. In Mark 6:41, Jesus "Took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all". Gratitude can begin with the very little. Jesus gave thanks for the little food they had, which was not enough to feed them all. It then turned into abundance with enough to feed everyone.

Of course, if life is going well, it is so easy to find things to be grateful for. It's easy to thank God for a promotion at work, the blessing of a new child, the grades you get in exams, etc but what about when we are in crisis. Yet it is exactly in these times when we need God most. There is never nothing to be thankful for. Look for the smaller things. You are not alone – God is with you. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." It can be hard to give thanks when you are in pain but God is there by your side. Be thankful that you are not alone and give thanks to God.

Living a life of gratitude to God will change you. Once you start practising gratitude and thanking God, your relationship and closeness, to and with Him will develop. The things we can be grateful for can be simple like the sunrise in the morning or the colour of the trees. Once you start counting your blessings, your gratitude to God will grow and strengthen. What we do need to do is be intentional in our gratitude to praise and give thanks to God.