The Power and Practice of Gratitude in Christ

When we're talking about thanksgiving, when we're talking about gratitude, we're talking about the kind of gratitude that we see in people like Pastor Gomna. It's not just an emotion. It's not just a sort of momentary feeling of thanksgiving, but it's something that is deep and it's something that is profound. It's something that gives us a depth of resilience even in the face of loss and suffering because it grows out of a place of our encounter with God's grace. [00:21:27] (34 seconds)  #ResilientGratitude

The direction of the relationship is that gratitude is the source, and happiness is the outcome. Conversely, negative people, people who always have a word of complaining in their mouth, people who are always quick to criticize, people who are always quick to judge, people who are going around with a sharp spotlight, focused on everything, looking for faults wherever they can find it, are less resilient. They're less generous. They're more apt to have physical and psychological difficulties in their course of life. [00:23:22] (47 seconds)  #GratitudeLeadsToHappiness

Positive psychology, in other words, is not just about dealing with problems once they've developed, but it's about preparing ourselves in a way that we can live optimally, that we can live with a sense of gratitude all of the time. And we don't need science to tell us that, do we? We don't need the field of positive psychology to tell us that. We already know, because we know that that's how God has designed us. [00:24:39] (30 seconds)  #LiveWithGratitude

Paul is not describing an emotion here. He's describing a Spirit-filled life. He's describing a life that is grounded in Scripture. He's describing a grateful community that is filled together with the presence of God. And yes, notice that gratitude here is not a private individual experience, but it's a community experience. It's communal. It shows up in our speaking. It shows up in our singing. When we sing with energy and joy and volume, it shows up. It shows up in the way that we do life together. [00:31:38] (44 seconds)  #GraceAndGratitudeEcho

Whatever you do, wherever you find yourself, everything, every conversation, every task, no matter how menial, no matter how routine, no matter how distressing, in every moment, give thanks for grace that you have received because grace is the cause and gratitude is the effect. God's gift is the voice and our gratitude is the echo and grace is in everything. [00:33:54] (36 seconds)  #GraceSaturatesLife

We live in a world saturated in God's grace. The molecules of our bodies would not adhere together for another single millisecond apart from the grace of our God. Wherever grace is known, gratitude will grow. [00:34:31] (25 seconds)  #SubversiveGratitude

Imagine if, like Pastor Gomes congregation, our shared life together radiated so much gratitude. Even in hardship, our neighbors would come and say, thank you for the life that you're living. Thank you for the way that you're showing up in the world. There's so much negativity and so much division and so much complaint. It's so easy to make an enemy of somebody. Thank you for the way that you're showing up in the world. Thank you for the way you're showing the grace of God. This is the kind of thanks, it's the kind of beauty that makes grace visible. [00:40:52] (48 seconds)  #GratitudeIsGospel

Gratitude is not just a personality trait. It's a gospel responsibility. Grace is the thunder. Gratitude is the echo. The more deeply we receive God's grace in Christ in our lives, the more naturally gratitude will fill our speech, it will fill our worship, it will fill our lives to overflowing. [00:41:41] (26 seconds)  #BreatheGratitude