THE BENEFITS OF SHOWING GRATITUDE TO GOD!

Today we are going to look at “THE BENEFITS OF SHOWING GRATITUDE TO GOD! At this time of the year, families traditionally gather to celebrate and thank God for all His many many blessings. 

What is gratitude? Gratitude is a natural expression of thanks in response to blessings, protection, or love received. 

 

Why give thanks to God? We give thanks to the Lord because it is a command of God (1 Thess. 5:18).

 

We must learn to be thankful to God for all thing (Eph. 5:20).

 

What then is thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness. Thanksgiving is a continual appreciation for the wonderful acts of God in your life.

Beloved, there is a need to come back at the end of the year to give quality thanks to the Lord, to appreciate Him for His benefits to you and your family. What are the benefits of showing gratitude or giving thanks to God?

 

1. Thanking God will bring His presence to your life. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving…” (Ps. 100:4).

2. Thanking God helps you to view your challenges from a different perspective. Our minds are usually plagued by unnecessary noise that prevents us from seeing the bigger picture. However, when you turn your thanksgiving heavenwards, everything suddenly becomes crystal clear. 

 

3. Thanking God helps your mind to become less encumbered. Thanksgiving and praise free your mind from darkness, anxiety, sin, deception and all the other awful things that might be plaguing you. If you really mean what you say in your praise to the Lord, you simply cannot let all the bad stuff stay with you. 

 

4. Giving thanks to God does not only bring you closer to Him, but also brings you closer to your loved ones whom you are thankful for. As they are a gift from God, by thanking Him for their presence in your life, you can understand just how much they mean to you. 

 

5. Gratitude to God keeps you continually aware that the Lord is close by. A decision to thank God for walking with you through life makes you more sensitive to His comforting presence.

 

6. Thanksgiving motivates you to look for His purpose in your circumstance. Knowing that the Lord allows hurt and trouble for His good purposes takes the edge off the pain. 

 

Even if we don’t understand why we’re going through suffering, we can thank God because we know that in His time, He’ll work it all for good. In the meantime, we can rest in the knowledge that He’s using every hardship to transform us into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28).

 

7. Thanksgiving helps bring your will into submission to God. When the situation you are experiencing is the last thing you would ever want, thanking the Lord is a giant step toward being able to follow Christ’s example and say, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). 

 

Gratitude helps you acknowledge that God’s will is best, even if it’s hard; in that way, you are able to release your hold on what you want. Although the circumstances may remain the same, submission changes your heart.

 

8. Gratitude to God reminds you of your continual dependence upon Him. Pride, adequacy, and independence evaporate whenever you are trapped in a situation that leaves you helpless and hopeless. If there’s no way out, thanking God for His control over all things reminds you that He alone is your strength.

 

9. Thankfulness is an essential ingredient for joy. There’s no way to “rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16) without giving thanks in everything (v. 18). That’s why ungrateful people are so grumpy. Joy is an inner sense of contentment, which flows from a deep assurance that all God’s purposes are good and He’s in complete control of every situation. With that kind of supernatural joy, it’s easy to be thankful.

10. A grateful attitude strengthens your witness to unbelievers. The world is filled with people who are angry, frustrated, and overwhelmed with the difficulties of life. But a believer with a grateful attitude is like a light shining in a dark place. The people around you will want to know why you don’t grumble and complain the way everyone else does. Then you can tell them about your amazing Saviour.

 

11. Thanking God focuses your attention on Him rather than on your circumstances. God knows exactly what you’re going through, loves you unconditionally, and understands you perfectly. When you thank Him in tough times, He gets bigger, and your mountains (challenges) become smaller.

 

12. Gratitude gives us eternal perspective. The apostle Paul is an amazing example of a man who suffered extreme hardship yet remained thankful. That’s because he was able to see life from God’s perspective (2 Cor. 4:15-16). 

 

If you’re going through a really hard time, those words may sound ridiculous. Maybe you’ve been dealing with pain your entire life, or a difficult trial has dragged on for decades. It hardly seems momentary or light. But Paul is comparing our situations here on earth with what’s awaiting us in eternity. For him, a 40-year stretch of pain and hardship was no match for the “eternal weight of glory” awaiting him (2 Cor. 4:17). Your present pain has the potential to produce incomparable glory for you in heaven.

 

13. When you are wearied by your circumstances, thanksgiving will energize you. Most of us can handle short trials, but if they continue for a long period of time, the emotional and physical strain is exhausting. Should an ongoing illness, unresolved relational problems, or continued financial pressures become more than we can bear, it’s time to start thanking God because He has promised to give strength to the weary (Isa. 40:29).  He’ll release His supernatural energy within us so we can patiently endure the trial and come out victorious on the other side.

 

14. Gratitude transforms anxiety into peace, which passes all understanding. When you feel anxious about any situation, complaining, getting angry, and arguing with God won’t change your circumstance. But when you begin to thank God for what you are going through, you receive His peace. Though your situation may not change for a while, God’s peace will guard your heart all the way through the trying time (Phil. 4:6-7).

15. Giving thanks to God will bring WHOLENESS to your life. A typical example is the story of the ten lepers (Lk. 17:11-19). There are four main points to look at here:

Ten lepers were cleansed but only one of them was made whole because he came back to show appreciation to the Lord. This wholesomeness came to be because he demonstrated his faith by coming back to say, “Thank You,” to God. This singular attitude showed that he was healed because he believed. 

 

When you receive blessings from God and you don’t come back to give Him thanks, it shows that you don’t even believe that it was God that did you that favour. 

 

In Luke 17:19 Jesus said to him, "Get up. Go on your way. Your faith has (1) healed and (2) saved you." From this verse we can see that the only one that came to express gratitude to God received double for his trouble – he was (1) healed and (2) saved. The other nine that did not come to give God thanks for the blessing received did not receive the second blessing – salvation. 

 

So, if you want a double portion of God’ blessings for your trouble, you have to thank Him for the blessings you have already received. The leper was (1) healed and (2) saved. The other nine were only healed. They were not saved.

 

16. Thanksgiving is the key that releases the miracle you need in your life. Appreciation takes you to your next level. Do you need a miracle in your marriage? Do you need a breakthrough in any area of your life? Then try thanksgiving. For instance:

 

a) Thanksgiving will bring the miracle of multiplication to your life (Jn. 6:1-13). 

 

b) Thanksgiving will raise someone from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead with thanksgiving (Jn. 11:41-43). 

 

c) Thanksgiving will cause the dry bones in your life to live again (Ezek. 37). 

 

d) Jonah was swallowed by a fish because he disobeyed God. In the womb of the fish Jonah sacrificially gave God thanks and promised to obey Him this time around. Immediately the Lord commanded the fish to vomit out Jonah in Nineveh.

 

Jonah 2:9-10 says, “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. 10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

 

Be thankful to God and bless His name! Has the Lord blessed you in any special way – promotion in your office, financial breakthrough, answers to your prayers? Has He spared you from going to hospital? The Scriptures command us to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare the great works of God with rejoicing” (Ps. 107:22). 

 

Just lift your hands and voices and thank God for the many many blessings you have received from Him this year.

 

Watch out for the new edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

 

Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)