Do you remember when Black Friday was truly just a one-day sale? Alongside some extended family, we would spend some time on Thanksgiving Day sifting through the ads of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, seeing if there was anything worth waking up early for the next morning. Next thing you know, stores began to open on Thanksgiving evening. Eventually, many stores weren’t even closed for Thanksgiving Day. A day intended for gratitude and thanksgiving was soon filled with consumerism, lack of contentment, and wonderment of what physical things would temporarily fill our homes and satisfy our hearts next. Earthly things can quickly rob our hearts of the joy that comes from finding our contentment in Christ.
Gratitude doesn’t come naturally. We can certainly ask God to give us a thankful heart. However, gratitude is also a practice. It’s a discipline. It’s a choice. Below are some ways I am longing to help cultivate a heart of gratitude during this holiday season. I pray these things can help you grow in what it means to be thankful and content as well.
- Spend time reading your Bible.
How quickly we forget about God’s goodness and faithfulness in our lives. I think about the times the Israelites in the Old Testament forgot about how God provided for them in the wilderness. In times of distress and fear, they saw a worldly obstacle as something greater than their God. Reading God’s word is one of the best ways to be reminded of God’s provision, grace, mercy, and love for us. The Psalms particularly are chock full of truth regarding gratitude. Psalm 100, Psalm 136, and Psalm 34 are great examples of passages about thanksgiving. As I once heard it said, “Get into God’s word until God’s word gets into you.” In this case, get into God’s word until gratitude gets into you.
2. Memorize Scripture about thanksgiving.
Reading Scripture is significant. However, when we hide it in our hearts, we carry it with us through the most difficult of moments. Memorizing Scripture allows us to battle ungratefulness in our minds, and the Holy Spirit can use verses on our hearts in wonderful ways at just the right time. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, “Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Psalm 107:1 reminds us to give thanks in light of God’s steadfastness, while Colossians 3:15 urges us to let Christ rule in our hearts, which leads us to a proper perspective of gratitude.
3. Look back to what God has done.
Take some time to recall stories of God’s faithfulness in the Bible. Look at God’s provision for His people as they crossed the Red Sea in Exodus 14. When His disciples wondered how lunch was going to happen for the crowd, Jesus fed the 5,000 in Matthew 14:13-21. One of my favorites is to think about how God was faithful to spread the gospel through Christ’s followers. Think about it…here we are today, many of us on the opposite side of the globe from where the message began. Yet, we have heard about the saving work of Jesus.
Remember what God has done in your own life. How has God been faithful to you personally? Take time and recall those answered prayers and unexpected blessings along the way. Although we don’t want to simply live in the past, it is helpful to take a look in the rearview mirror and remember where God has brought us from.
4. Develop traditions around gratitude.
Whether you live on your own, with your family, or with some roommates, develop some traditions around being grateful. This is one of many areas my wife, Rachel, leads our family so well. Each fall season, the thankful tree comes out. It’s simply a fall-colored vase with some twigs sticking out, and leaf shape card stock in a bowl. Our family spends the season writing what we are thankful for on those card stock leaves and slowly filling the tree with gratitude. Right now there is a big pumpkin in the middle of our kitchen table, which slowly gets markered with Bible verses about thanksgiving. Whether it’s a journal of blessings, a thankful tree/pumpkin, or some other creative and simple idea, get in the rhythm of displaying gratitude.
5. Serve others.
Serving others is simply what we are called to do as believers. Serving can shift our focus from ourselves to others, leading us to thankfulness toward all we have. Grab some friends or family and go serve. Participate in a food drive, donate a turkey to a needy family, serve at a soup kitchen, or adopt a family in need for Christmas. Invite someone to the dinner table that doesn’t have family around. Ultimately, our aim is to share the hope we have in Christ with others.
Let us use this Thanksgiving week as a springboard to being grateful every day. Let us immerse ourselves in Scripture, hide God’s word in our hearts, reflect on God’s faithfulness, create fun traditions, and love others to Jesus.
“And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:15 (CSB)
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