The Thankful Heart

How do we develop a thankful heart?  We think that we can do this be reviewing things to be thankful for, or by comparing our lot with circumstances that are worse.  But these two tactics become mental exercises that do not change our hearts into thankful ones.

Itemizing our pluses and weighing them against our minuses is what the world does.  The Christian is actually supposed to give thanks for all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18). Reviewing hurtful and wrong circumstances will hardly produce a thankful heart. Facts may convince our mind of right and wrong, but they do not convert the heart to right attitudes.

There is something much stronger, and it unifies the heart and the mind.  It is the will of a man.  When our will is laid down in submission to God, we can praise Him despite the circumstances.  The mind of man that has studied facts and projected outcomes needs to consider that the Man most full of His Father’s praise was the Man most submissive of all; Jesus.  It was Jesus who taught His disciples to thank God for the food, raising it for blessing before His own betrayal (Lk 22:17 & 19).

If we follow Jesus’ example of submission and give God thanks for even the most bitter of circumstances, then we, like Him, acknowledge that God’s will is good.  Our submission is the beginning of the right attitude of our heart.  Therefore, laying our will down will always precede true thankfulness.  Amen.