Is it really possible to be grateful in every situation?
Thanksgiving, here in the United States, is in a couple of weeks or so. And we’re going to talk about how to be grateful in every situation you may find yourself. And we’ll talk about a few of the many ways to express gratitude found in the Bible.
If you’re listening to the podcast or reading this at some other time of year, or you’re in a country that doesn’t have a national Thanksgiving Day, or you celebrate Thanksgiving at another time of the year, I hope you’ll still listen or read. Being grateful is not just for one particular time of year. It’s best when it’s an everyday practice.
What are you grateful for?
It’s so important to take a look at our lives and see what we have to be grateful for. Now, you may find that very easy because there is so much good going on in your life right now. In fact, you could make a long list of things to be grateful for.
When things are going well in life, it is pretty easy to be grateful.
But maybe you’re going through a season of your life right now where things aren’t going so well. Things aren’t working out. You didn’t get the job you needed. You don’t have enough money to pay the bills. You just lost someone dear to you. Nobody understands you. You’ve been ostracized by your family your friends, or your church.
Or whatever it might be. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to find anything to be grateful for.
So, wherever you are on the spectrum of how much or how little you think you have to be grateful for, I want to encourage you to just take a step back and let’s revisit what it really means to be grateful, what are the most important things to be grateful for, and what are the best ways to express gratitude.
What is gratitude?
So, what actually is gratitude. Here’s one dictionary definition: “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”
Usually we think of gratitude as kind of passive. We’re thankful for what we have or what someone has done for or given us. But this dictionary definition brings out the idea that gratitude includes returning a kindness, returning a favor, paying it forward in one way or another.
That brings a whole new dimension to gratitude, doesn’t it? It’s not just a passive acknowledgment of the blessings you have, but an active sharing of your blessings with others. You’re so thankful, you want to share the joy.
Be grateful in every situation
The Bible has so much to say about being grateful, under all kinds of circumstances.
Sometimes we’re grateful just because, not for any particular thing, just because God is good, because God’s love is present.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1 NIVO come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. Psalm 95:1-3 KJV
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.Psalm 100:1-5 NIV
That’s pretty basic. We’re grateful because God is good, because He loves us. And one of the ways to express this gratitude is by singing, singing joyful songs to God.
Grateful when God delivers us
Sometimes we’re grateful for something good that happens or that someone does for us, or a blessing God has sent our way. He delivers us. He provides for us. He guides us.
Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, Psalm 107:2-8 NIV
Sometimes we feel like we’re in darkness. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know where we are. We feel like we’re in prison because we’ve made mistakes, we’ve disobeyed God. But there’s always a place to be grateful.
Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, Psalm 107:10, 11, 13-15 NIV
Sometimes we’re grateful because we’ve done foolish things and God delivers us when we call out to Him for help.
Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. Psalm 107:17-19 NIV
Do you see a pattern here? “They cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.”
Grateful when God heals and saves us
Sometimes we’re grateful to God because He has healed us.
He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Psalm 107:20, 21 NIV
You’ll notice these last several examples are all from Psalm 107. There’s a lot more in that Psalm about things God does that we are grateful for. I’m not going to mention them all but when you have a few minutes, I hope you’ll read the whole Psalm. It’s a powerful reminder of so many things God does for us, that it’s only natural to be grateful for.
In fact, there are hundreds of verses in the Bible that talk about giving thanks to God in one way or another, under all kinds of circumstances.
Have you ever waked up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep? Well, maybe it’s just an opportunity to be grateful.
I rise at midnight to thank you
for your righteous judgments. Psalm 119:62 CSB
One of my favorites examples of someone being grateful is when Jonah is in the belly of the great fish. He was in this terrible situation, basically because he had been disobedient to God. But he turned back to God and promised to be obedient in the future. And in his prayers he promised he would do this in the spirit of thanksgiving. That’s when God delivered him from his self-inflicted predicament.
“I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD.”
So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah 2:9, 10 NKJV
Being grateful in advance
The next time you find yourself with a problem, whether you brought it on yourself like Jonah did, or whether it’s something that came out of nowhere, you can pray the prayer of thanksgiving, the prayer of gratitude to God, because you know He is the only one that can solve the problem.
In effect, you’re thanking God in advance for solving the problem, even while you’re still in the middle of it.
Jesus often took this approach. He gave thanks before God answered his prayers. Remember when he fed the 5,000?
And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. Matthew 14:19 NIV
I think it’s very interesting that Jesus thanked God before all that extra food appeared. He was grateful for what he had as well as for how God was going to provide enough food for everyone.
Jesus also practiced being grateful in advance when he raised Lazarus from the grave.
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” John 11:41, 42 NIV
Can you be grateful in every situation?
Are you in the middle of a problem that hasn’t been healed or resolved? This is a perfect time to thank God, in advance, for the healing, for the solution, because you know He will hear your prayer and answer it.
Usually we wait until after we get an answer, a resolution, or a healing to thank God. Take a moment right now to express gratitude to God for bringing a solution to your problem even though it hasn’t happened yet.
If you’re interested in other ways Jesus expressed gratitude, I did a whole podcast episode #111 What Was Jesus Thankful for?
Gratitude, in whatever form, and whenever it’s expressed is a powerful prayer.
Gratitude heals
Before we were married, my wife was in church one Wednesday night. During a time set aside for people to express gratitude, a woman stood up and said, “Gratitude healed me of cancer,” and sat down.
After the service, my wife, well, my wife-to-be, went up to her to ask more about her healing. She knew there had to be something else to the story. The lady said she had gotten to the point where she was grateful for every little detail in her life. She took absolutely nothing for granted. She said it got to where she was grateful for the wrapper on the bread.
She flooded her thinking, her whole being, with gratitude. And that healed her.
How often do we take all the little blessings in life for granted? Are you grateful for the wrapper on the bread, the tines on a fork, a pair of sharp scissors. What about light bulbs and light switches. The stripes on the highway that divide the lanes. The list is endless. Or it should be.
Gratitude is a lens
Gratitude is not so much something you try to remember to express. It’s a lens you look at the world through.
I remember the first pair of sunglasses I got as a kid. I was about 4 or 5 years old. They had bright red plastic frames and green-tinted lenses. When I put them on, everything was greener. I remember it was early spring and the grass hadn’t greened up yet. But when I put on those sunglasses, the grass was very green.
That’s what gratitude is like. When you put on a pair of gratitude-colored sunglasses, so to speak, you’ll see everything with a sense of gratitude.
This kind of gratitude is not just something you do. It’s something you are. It’s a way of thinking, a mindset, a spiritual attitude, or lens, you look at life through. And it’s powerful.
Why is gratitude powerful?
But have you ever wondered why gratitude is so powerful?
It really comes down to the heart of what gratitude is all about. You’re acknowledging the source of the good you have and are.
If a friend gives you a gift, you say “Thank you.” That friend is the source of that gift and when you express gratitude, it’s a simple act of acknowledging where it came from.
When you thank God for all the good He has given you, you’re acknowledging He is the source of that good. This acknowledgment of God as the source and creator of all good is what unleashes the power of gratitude. It’s like a key that opens a locked door.
Being grateful when things are tough
As I said earlier, it’s easy to thank God for the way He’s blessed you. But what about when things are not going so well? What about when it seems your world is falling apart and you’re struggling just to survive?
Is it possible to be grateful in every situation, even challenging times? The answer is yes, but it can be really hard at times. If you’re going through some tough challenges right now, remember that lady at church who was grateful for the wrapper on the bread. She was healed. You can always find something to be grateful for. Even if it seems totally insignificant.
I love what Paul says
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
How to be grateful during a problem
So does that mean we’re supposed to be grateful when we have a problem?
Now this may sound a little counter-intuitive, but yes, you can also be grateful, in a sense, for the problem itself.
I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about. If you’ve been listening to The Bible Speaks to You Podcast for a while, you may have heard me mention my prison ministry at the Danbury, CT Federal Correctional Institution. I’ve been conducting weekly Bible study classes there since 2008.
I cannot tell you how many of those folks, who have come to my Bible studies over the years, have said to me they are grateful for being in prison because it has given them an opportunity to straighten their lives out, to improve themselves, and get a deeper faith in God.
Would you be grateful if you were in prison?
How would you feel if you were in prison? Is gratitude the first thing that comes to mind? Probably not. And it wasn’t for any of these inmates either, but they came to be grateful, kind of like Jonah did when he was in the prison of a fish’s belly.
The gratitude these folks have come to feel has also given them a sense of spiritual freedom as well. They may still be in the institution called a prison, but they have found a sense of freedom as a child of God, and their gratitude for the situation is a large factor in finding that freedom.
So, if you ever feel imprisoned by a problem, whatever it is, thank God for it. Not so much for the problem itself, but for the opportunity it gives you to turn to God for help.
So many of the folks in my Bible study at prison have told me they never would have gotten their lives sorted out if they hadn’t been arrested and removed from the situation they had created for themselves or got caught up in.
Sometimes, a problem makes us stop and turn to God for answers to the real issues we’re facing, which we might not have done if everything seemed to be okay in our lives.
Your gratitude practice
There are so ways to be grateful and so many ways to express that gratitude.
So, let’s talk about ways to practice your gratitude. What is your gratitude practice? Do you have a gratitude practice?
There are so many ways to express gratitude, and I’ll share a few that I have found helpful over the years.
Of course, when I was a little kid, my parents taught me to thank someone when they gave me a gift or a compliment. That is a powerful gratitude practice. And I try to carry through with that today.
Another gratitude practice that’s been helpful is writing in a journal. I’ve been doing this since 1981. It’s not always 100% about gratitude, but overall it has been a record of the way God has blessed me, the challenges I’ve faced, and how God has brought solutions and healing.
And to write these down is a natural expression of my gratitude to God. More and more, my journal has become a record of what how God has inspired me and the conversations we have. And it’s all with a sense of gratitude for the way He continues to guide me.
I am just about to finish volume 9, all but one of which is 300 pages. That’s a lot of writing over the years. That’s a lot of gratitude.
Do you have a gratitude journal?
If you’re not already, I encourage you to keep some kind of a gratitude journal. It’s a great practice on so many levels, but one of the best is that you can go back and read about something that happened a year or so ago, which you may have completely forgotten about, and be grateful all over again for it.
Another gratitude practice my wife and I have done together for the last ten years or so is, just before we go to bed, to share at least three things we’re grateful for that happened during the day. This has helped us focus on all the good that comes our way.
And it spills over into our lives. Often during the day, we’ll share something we’re grateful for, as it happens.
Collective gratitude
Everything I’ve mentioned so far has been more on a personal and individual level, but there is power in collective gratitude as well.
Every Wednesday night at church, there’s time set aside to express gratitude. And we also get together on Thanksgiving Day to share what we’re grateful for..
This public and collective expression of gratitude is a powerful testimony of the way God has worked in our lives.
If you don’t already have a gratitude practice in your life, and you probably do, but you just don’t call it that, I encourage you to create these habits of thinking. Expressing gratitude is like using a magnifying glass. It make the good you have appear larger. You see the good you have more clearly and this allows you to see and receive more good that you did before.
The most important gratitude
We’ve talked about just a few ideas about gratitude, but I want to end on a couple of the most important things we can be grateful for.
It’s the fact that God is God and sent His Son, Christ Jesus to show us the Way of Life, to be the Way of Life for us.
Paul says to the Corinthians
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV
And the book of Revelation expresses it this way.
The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.
And they said,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty,
the one who is and who always was,
for now you have assumed your great power
and have begun to reign. Revelation 11:16, 17 NLT
One of the most powerful ways to express gratitude is simply to thank God for being God.
As Thanksgiving Day approaches, I encourage you to put on a pair of those gratitude-colored sunglasses, to embrace a mindset of thankfulness, that sees every person and situation as an opportunity to be grateful, in one way or another.
Photo Credit: Courtney Cook
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Psalm 136:1 NIV
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Psalm 95:1-3 KJV
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psalm 100:1-5 NIV
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 107:2-8 NIV
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
Psalm 107:10, 11, 13-15 NIV
10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains,
11 because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
Psalm 107:17-19 NIV
17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
18 They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
Psalm 107:20, 21 NIV
20 He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
Psalm 119:62 CSB
62 I rise at midnight to thank you
for your righteous judgments.
Jonah 2:9, 10 NKJV
9 “I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD.”
10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Matthew 14:19 NIV
19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
John 11:41, 42 NIV
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 I knew that you always hear me…”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray continually,
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ,
Revelation 11:16, 17 NLT
16 The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.
17 And they said,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty,
the one who is and who always was,
for now you have assumed your great power
and have begun to reign.
