By Shephard Victor
Wonder how often we easily reduce gratitude to a prayer item on our prayer list when we pray.
We remember to be grateful when we are praying.
We remember to say “thank You, Lord” when the year is ending.
We remember gratitude when something dramatic happens.
Is this how gratitude should be? I do not think that gratitude was designed to be seasonal or a December thing.
I believe it was meant to be our life.
Scriptures say, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Do you notice the language – “in everything”, not after everything, not when things improve, and not at year-end reviews.
I would like to establish, firstly, that “Gratitude Is a Way of Seeing.”
Many think gratitude must be triggered by events, and thus wait for milestones before responding with thanks. Ideally, it should be a lifestyle; you don’t need a special reason anymore, because your life itself becomes the reason.
Think about it:
You woke up today – that alone is mercy (Lamentations 3:22–23).
You made it through seasons that could have broken you.
You are standing where once you prayed just to survive.
You are standing on platforms that were once figments of your imagination.
Yet we often overlook these because they didn’t arrive wrapped in fireworks.
Remember, Jesus healed ten lepers in Luke 17:11–19. Only one returned to give thanks.
I think that the others weren’t just ungrateful because they weren’t healed, I believed that they simply were waiting for the first sunday of the month to give their testimonies (so that many people will be blessed, they think)- and they simply moved on too quickly because it wasnt thanksgiving sunday.
That’s how gratitude leaks out of our lives – we are always waiting for a right time (end of the year)…
…to be continued
More Blessings!