The Power of Gratitude

We spend a lot of time looking inward, which is an important part of change. But I want to help us look outward, in gratitude.

First, let me open in prayer…

Dear God,
Please help us set aside the noise and distractions in our lives. Help us concentrate and hear You in our hearts, during this time. We long to know You better. Help us understand Your plan and purpose for our lives.

In all things, help us seek Your will above our own. Help us live in a way that honors and glorifies You. Please guide us so that we can shine Your light in dark places. We want others to see You in us.

Thank You for Your grace, Your forgiveness, and Your love. Thank You for everyone you have given us in THIS life; thank you for our recovery program, and for our church.

In the name of Jesus—Amen

Jesus said of himself, I am humble and lowly in heart. We are called to be humble. And gratitude is an expression a humble heart. Think of it; life is a gift, given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. Daily gratitude will keep our hearts open to be thankful for, anticipate, and humbly receive the blessings that God wants to bestow upon us. Thankfulness, gratitude, is an essential part of our recovery!

Those who live with open and grateful, humble hearts will receive life’s gifts, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” (Luke 6:38).

To orient this in the 12-step process, Gratitude expresses an attitude and practice that fits with Step 11 and Principle 7

• Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.
• Principle 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer, in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow his will.
• Lesson 22:  Addresses Gratitude in that process of communication with God.

DEFINITION OF GRATITUDE: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
 
The Word “Thanks” in the Greek scriptures is: eucharisteō. 
AND that word is where we get the English word, Eucharist, the name that the church has given to the celebration of communion, the last supper, THANKFULNESS for the sacrifice Jesus made for you and me. 



Thanks, in Hebrew scriptures: yadah; it means to give praise, give thanks, honor, to glorify.


We are reminded, in scripture, hundreds of times, to be thankful, to express gratitude and to glorify God.

Lesson 22 encourages thankfulness:

• For God and the grace He has extended to us through Jesus
  • For others he has placed in our lives
  • For our recovery
  • For our church

I am going to tell you two stories tonight, about the power of gratitude or thankfulness—that demonstrate the effect it has on our recovery and overcoming difficulty—on helping us to be healthy, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Both these stories are examples of gratitude that occurred in times of difficulty and hardship. 

The first story is about a woman named Ann: 

In 2010, Ann Voskamp wrote a book entitled, One Thousand Gifts—To Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are. In it she relates her story of personal tragedy, anger toward God, and the effect of thankfulness:

For Ann Voskamp, the notion of being able to give thanks and “to live fully right where she was” was lost at an early age, when she, as a young child, witnessed her baby sister crushed in the driveway, beneath the wheels of a delivery truck on her parent’s farm. 



While her parents held her dead sister in their arms, Ann watched as they prayed, that the life of that child would be restored. It was not.

After that tragic death, Ann and her parents developed a deep resentment and anger toward God for his unfair dealings in their lives—for His seeming not to care.  For years afterwards, Ann had dreams in which she saw her baby sister crushed in the driveway. She despaired of ever again finding joy—much less, thankfulness—and was utterly closed to God’s grace. Her life was stuck in this vicious loop.

She asked the questions that some of us may have asked when tragedy or pain has entered our life:

• Where is God, now, really?
• How could he be good when He allows these terrible events to occur in my life?
• What do I have to be thankful for?

Ann carried this pain, the burden and resentment, right into her adult married life—all the time defending her heart against hoping for God to ever intervene and care for those she loved.

Then a close friend, who knew Ann’s pain, deep resentment, and anger toward God, challenged Ann to experience thankfulness by writing a list of blessings—not just a few—the challenge was to find ONE THOUSAND BLESSINGS for which ANN was thankful.

Ann accepted the challenge. She began slowly compiling her list in her journal, over the months and year that followed. And she found 1,000 blessings, 1000 reasons to be thankful!

So, what were results of recognizing multiple blessings for which she could express thankfulness? It resulted in a dramatic and glorious change in her life: 


• Ann’s entire perspective changed—from anger and bitterness to hope and thankfulness. 

• She opened her heart toward God, her family, and others around her.

• She began to minister hope and healing to others.

• She wrote a NY Times best seller that spread hope and healing around the world, resulting from being thankful to God.

• She later said, “COUNTING the things for which I am thankful caused me to realize I could COUNT ON GOD.”

But never lose sight of the fact that Ann Voskamp was not some unique prodigy: She was a deeply hurt and angry, flesh and blood woman, who finally opened her heart when she learned to express gratitude to God. Ann is just a person like YOU AND ME.

So, now let me share some of the outcomes that will occur in our lives from being thankful, of expressing gratitude: 


• In events and circumstances that might feel as though they are crushing us, it is possible to find blessings, things for which we can express gratitude to God and to the people in our life, despite dark or trying times. Ann Voskamp is only one example. 

• Thankfulness increases our empathy for others. Gratitude, for some reason, has the effect of opening our hearts to others.
• Thankfulness improves self-esteem; knowing you are being blessed by God and others causes you to feel valued.
• Gratitude can help you appreciate God at work in your life and increase your faith.
• Gratitude can unwind a victim mentality, giving you back the power that God intended you to have all along.
• Gratitude can lift you up and OTHERS as well—because we all affect those in your circle of influence.
• Gratitude can help you open your heart to loving others more deeply.
  
  

I told you I was going to share 2 stories about the power of gratitude or thankfulness.

This story is about someone I know of personally. It is about the sustaining power of gratitude in the midst of trial and trauma.

• I have a friend named Diana. As a young woman, she was a wife and the mother of three children.
  • On an evening Diana and her family were watching a movie in their living room. Her husband had just left the room and gone to the bathroom.
  • While Diana and her children were still in the living room, they heard a loud “bang” from the bathroom. Their young son, Brian, leaped up, ran to the bathroom, threw open the door—and found his father lying on the bathroom floor, in a pool of blood. He had committed suicide. As the entire family made their way to that bathroom, they each witnessed that horrible scene.
  • I cannot imagine the grief and trauma this death caused in their family.
  • Because they were so traumatized, it was difficult to function. They continued to live in this house—because more change seemed unbearable—and they had no other place to go. Even though they thoroughly cleaned up from that gruesome scene and tried to move on—every morning after that tragedy, they used that bathroom. It was a constant reminder.
  • Soon, because of their now greatly reduced income (Diana’s husband was the sole breadwinner), another change came; the children had to leave the Christian school they had attended all their lives, because Diana could no longer afford tuition.
  • Then, in little more than a year, because they were unable to afford their mortgage, the family was evicted from their home.
  • All of this seems like incomprehensible trauma for a family to bear. 


So—what is Diana’s attitude about this disaster that was such a tragic part of her and her children’s life?

Two weeks ago I heard the details of this tragedy related in a message during a church service. And I was sitting right next to Diana. After the service, all I could do was look at her and say, “Oh Diana!!”

But her response to me was remarkable as she looked at me with compassion and exclaimed:

“Tom, God, through all those difficulties that our family faced, looked after us. He brought us closer, bonded us together as a family, with each other and with Him, like we had never experienced before.”

Diana, with tears in her eyes was expressing gratitude, thankfulness, to God! I was speechless.

How can God use circumstances in our lives like divorce, death of a loved one, separation from our family, painful relationships, addictions and their collateral damage, self-abuse—and on and on—how can He use those for good? I don’t know how He does it, but God says he will—and He does: 


• The scripture says, in Romans 8:28-31
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose.
  AND WHY?
  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren …”
  
  That is something for which we can be filled with GRATITUDE! And to be able to see the results of him causing “all things to work together for good” in our lives, REQUIRES US TO LOOK THROUGH EYES OF THANKFULNESS.
  
  
• BUT KEEP IN MIND: God does not bring evil upon us but helps us and blesses us THROUGH the difficulties that our ENEMY MEANS for evil, and we are thankful!
  
  

SO LET ME CONTINUE WITH SOME MORE THE BENEFITS OF THANKFULNESS

• Expressing thankfulness, breaks the bondage of fear and anxiety: Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Do you believe this?
  
  
• Expressing gratitude to God will provide us with a pathway through the storm, just as they did for Ann Voskamp and for Diana and her family.  

  
  
• Being thankful will often be the doorway for us to find joy when circumstances don’t provide any such door. 

  
  
• Thankfulness humbles us. It is humbling to be grateful to God or a person—for blessings we received freely from the love of God and the love and compassion of others.
  
  
• Thankfulness causes us, in that moment, to be reverent toward God and show honor to others in our lives. The concept of “showing honor” is included in the definition of the word gratitude.
  
  

What does Jesus think about thankfulness? Here is one example in the life of Jesus:

Luke 17:11-19 “While Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.

“As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 

“When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were CLEANSED.

“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice (REMEMBER THAT “GLORIFYING” IS ONE OF THE MEANINGS OF THE WORD THANKFUL), and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, GIVING THANKS to Him. And he was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory (THANKS) to God, except this foreigner?” He was a Samaritan, most hated by the Jews.

And [Jesus] said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”




Look at a couple of points here:

1. Jesus compared the “Thanks” the man had given, with giving “glory to God.”  GLORY means “praise, honor, thanks.”

2. And he connected thanks with faith: After the man gave thanks, Jesus said “Your faith has made you well.” That English word, “well” in the Greek is “sozo,” it means: TO SAVE, RESCUE, TO MAKE WHOLE, TO PROTECT.
   
   SOZO, to be saved, to be made whole, is what the Samaritan received when he came back to THANK Jesus.

What else does the Bible say about showing gratitude? It says we are:

TO GIVE THANKS FOR GOD’S CARE AND DELIVERANCE:
Psalms 107:1-2 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,

Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary.

TO BE OVERFLOWING WITH GRATITUDE: Colossians 2:6-7 “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude (eucharisteō).” OOK-AH-RIS-TAYO

TO BE THANKFUL IN THESE END TIMES THAT WE ARE IN GOD’S CARE: Hebrews 12:26-29 “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which CAN be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which CANNOT be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which CANNOT BE SHAKEN, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”

THAT WE SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVING THANKS: Ephesians 5:18-20 “…Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks (eucharisteō) for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” 

TO GIVE THANKS AFTER WHATEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED: Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

THAT GIVING PRAISE TO GOD IS THANKS: Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

I believe we should take it seriously that giving thanks is a central part of being a Christian—and an essential part of our recovery.  

HERE IS ONE FINAL REASON TO LIVE A LIFE OF THANKFULNESS TO

GOD. IT CONCERNS WHO JESUS IS IN OUR NEW LIFE:  

Do you remember that Joseph, the husband of Mary, was instructed by the angel to name Mary’s divinely conceived son, Jesus. The angel said “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus (“Yahweh is Salvation”), for he will save (SOZO) his people from their sins.”

And that scripture in Mathew is, interestingly, followed by a quotation of a prophecy made by Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It says:

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’.” That is in Isaiah 7:14.

Now let me ask you, is there any place in the Bible where Jesus is called Immanuel, other than this prophecy? None.

Immanuel was not intended to be his GIVEN or FORE-NAME. It is a statement of condition, nature, and quality of the coming of the Son of God, the Messiah, and what he means to us.

With the coming of Jesus, for the first time in all history, believers would experience the consistent presence of God, through the Son of God, who is fully man and fully God. As believers in Jesus, i.e. Immanuel, the Spirit dwells in us and we are his temple—constantly. 



Jesus, himself, addressed this to encourage believers. In Matthew 28:20 he states “…and lo, I am with you always (Literal Greek: ‘all the days’), even to the end of this age.”

So what is the outcome of Immanuel (GOD WITH US ALWAYS)?

We can be constantly thankful for the in the constant presence of the one who is:

• our constant advocate (1 John 2:1 “…we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.),
• our constant mediator (1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…).
• Our constant head, our master, our savior (Ephesians 5:23 “…Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.)
• Our ever-present brother (“…that he might be the first of many brethren…”)
• Our example and we are called to emulate Him (Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.).

Because IN Jesus and THROUGH Jesus, God is ever with us in our recovery, Immanuel.

The truth is, we are NEVER alone, and never need struggle alone. And for that, we are very, very thankful!!

CLOSING:

In my experience, we need to learn to be grateful every day, so that we do not open our lives to resentment, disappointment, frustration, dissatisfaction, discontent, despondency, or apathy—and these feelings darken our lives and slow or stop our recovery process.

I heard Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA, one time say that when we testify about healing, for example, we create an environment in which healing can occur for others. I believe that same principle applies to thankfulness. That when we give thanks, express gratitude, we are testifying to ourselves and others about the goodness of God and we open ourselves to a deeper relationship with Him, increasing our faith.

Those who live with open and grateful hearts receive life’s gifts,
full measure,
pressed down,
shaken together,
and running over.” (Luke 6:38).