In study after study, psychologists have echoed a biblical truth: Gratitude is good for you.
For instance, a 2018 exploringyourmind.com article declared, “Gratitude is good for you — amazingly healthy for those who practice it. Being grateful not only helps us cultivate emotional well-being and regulate stress, but also has a positive impact on our physical health.”
According to the article, some of the benefits of cultivating gratitude include lowering your stress, increasing the desire to exercise and eat better, improving your sleep, and even improving personal relationships.
The authors of the article attribute all of these benefits to the “amazing neurological effect” of gratitude on human physiology and emotions. “Although it may be hard to believe,” they write, “research supports the claim that, literally, we cannot function well without gratitude.”
And the Bible clearly agrees. But here’s the rub. Feeling grateful and being grateful are not the same thing. When I “feel” grateful, the feeling will fizzle as soon as I have another crappy day. But when I choose to be grateful, I am cultivating an attitude and perspective that shape my life, my health, and my relationships. And that is the main point—being grateful means that I choose to be grateful. I don’t rely on the feeling.
So what do I rely on in order to be grateful? To cultivate a habit of thanksgiving? I rely on the object of my gratitude. Being grateful requires that I have an object for my gratitude and that the object is worthy of my gratitude.
And God is the only One worthy to be the object of daily, habitual thanksgiving.
One of the Bible’s best examples of this comes in the midst of a political showdown in the kingdom of Babylon in the 6th century BC. Daniel, a Hebrew who had lived most of his time in exile from his homeland, had angered some government officials, so they invented a ruse to get him killed. They petitioned King Darius to issue a decree that the king would be honored as a god for one month, and anyone who did not bow to him in that month should be fed to the lions. Egomaniac that he was, King Darius relished the idea, and activated the decree.
But Daniel’s enemies were using the arrogance of Darius as a weapon of execution.
Daniel learned of the decree, and he knew it targeted his faith. His enemies were aware that he would never bow to any god but the Lord God. He was doomed.
So what did he do? Agonize over his predicament? Pack a bag and prepare to flee? Blame God for letting him down? Curl up and quit?
He did what he had always done in such cases, and every day in between: “When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house. The windows in its upstairs room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10).
The last phrase is what matters most—”and gave thanks to God, just as he had done before.”
A habit of thanksgiving. It’s because of that habit of thanksgiving that Daniel could face the lions. Without it, how do you expect to face tomorrow?
Thanksgiving Day is awesome. Food, family, football. But there is a problem with Thanksgiving Day. The title is a bit misleading. For Christians, Thanksgiving should not be an event, not a “day” on the calendar. It should be a habit of life.
A habit of thanksgiving prepares you for crises and conflicts. It energizes your faith for the future. It strengthens hope and provides perspective. It reminds you constantly, daily, that God is in charge and that He loves you more than you can ever imagine.
The apostle Paul wrote, “Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). For the follower of Christ, a habit of thanksgiving is not based on the circumstances, but on the character of your God.
Because a habit of thanksgiving is not about what you are thankful for. It’s about Who you are thankful to.