The Fruit of Cultivating a Heart of Thankfulness
July 5, 2021 • by Brittany Allen
“Tell me ten things you can thank God for right now.”
To be honest, when my mentor asked me this in the midst of grief and confusion and anger, I didn’t want to respond. I didn’t want to be thankful in the face of losing another unborn baby. Begrudgingly, I began my endeavor to search my life for evidence of God’s goodness to me. Evidence that wasn’t hard to find once I looked beyond the veil of sorrow.
Sometimes trials lay heavy on our shoulders, curving us inward and making it difficult to look up. Thankfulness can feel impossible when suffering closes in. When those times come, and come they will, maybe what we need most is to be reminded of what God has done and is doing. Yet, many of us also struggle to be thankful when our life is going smoothly. Instead, we might be anxious about what’s to come or maybe we’re busy living in a facade of self-sufficiency. Regardless of the season we face today, we can begin to cultivate a heart of thankfulness.
A Word on Thankfulness
God’s Word is not silent on the subject of gratitude. In fact, thankfulness is often listed in the description of the new life in Christ (Col. 2:6-7, 3:12-17). Scripture says that Christians should “abound in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7).
We’re also reminded that in Christ, we always have a reason to give thanks to God (1 Thes. 5:18). No matter what trial may pop up in our life tomorrow, we can be thankful to God for who he is. The Lord deserves our praise and thanksgiving for his goodness. This truth is found all throughout Scripture but especially in the Psalms.
“Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1)
We also learn from passages like Philippians 4:6 and Colossians 4:2 that thanksgiving should be part of our prayer life—that even among our anxieties and supplications lies a place for giving thanks to God. In the New Testament, the apostles often gave thanks for the work God was doing in the lives of other believers.
It seems it’s expected that as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should practice thankfulness. Yet it’s hard sometimes, isn’t it?
“Even among our anxieties and supplications lies a place for giving thanks to God. ”
Roadblocks to Thankfulness
Certainly one of the biggest roadblocks to being thankful is suffering. We can quickly become blinded by our painful circumstances.
A helpful clarification is that God doesn’t require us to call bad things good. Losing a child is not good. A woman being raped is not good. Cancer wreaking havoc on the body of someone we love is not good. Scripture doesn’t claim that God makes bad things good; it says he turns them for the good of his people (Rom. 8:28). God uses bad things to sanctify his people and that is something we can thank him for.
As Christians, we have hope—we have reason to rejoice in our suffering because we have something precious that will never be taken from us: our salvation in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:35-39). So we can thank God for the truth that he will never forsake us, that he promises to turn our pain for good, and that one day we will be with him in heaven and every tear will be wiped away (Rev. 21:4).
Surprisingly, it’s easy to forget to thank God for all his blessings when things are going well. Since the fall, we’re prone to pretending we’re self-sufficient. We forget that even the very breath in our lungs is something to thank God for. Literally everything good and beautiful that fills our life is a gift, and therefore we have never-ending reason to praise and thank God.
Another circumstance that may present us with a struggle to be thankful is our unrepentant sin or shame from previous sin. We know we’ve sinned, and so we fear going to God. Here’s a reason to give thanks: he forgives! We can go to him in repentance and ask for forgiveness and he promises to forgive us. Once you’ve gone to the Lord for forgiveness, don’t let shame keep you from basking in his grace. Instead of wallowing in shame, lift your hands and sing praise to the God who bore all your sin and shame and has declared you clean.
“Scripture doesn’t claim that God makes bad things good; it says he turns them for the good of his people.”
Cultivating a Heart of Thankfulness
You know I can’t leave you without some practical ideas to cultivate thankfulness in your life, right? Here are some things I’ve implemented that have stirred my heart toward gratitude.
Pray prayers of thankfulness throughout your day.
When struggling to be thankful, discipline yourself to write down ten things you can be thankful for right now.
Keep a thanksgiving journal where you write down five things every day, and then praise God for them in prayer.
Start your morning prayer with thanksgiving.
Remember to praise God for things he’s done in the lives of others (and tell them, too).
Tell others of what he has done in your life and why you’re thankful.
Open your eyes to even the “small” things you can be thankful for.
Seek accountability from a friend by sharing what you’re thankful for with each other.
This is not an exhaustive list, but I truly believe if you are intentional about a few of these, you will bear the fruit of being thankful.
The Fruit of Being Thankful
The most godly women I know are thankful women. They radiate God’s love and encourage me to remember his goodness and grace in my own life.
The truth is, none of us can have a thankful heart without the help of the indwelling Spirit who sanctifies us. This humbles me and encourages me that God is still working in my heart. And he’s at work in you, too. As we rely on him to help us cultivate thankfulness, we also cultivate hearts that treasure Jesus above all things. With each thankful prayer, we open our often hard hearts and closed eyes to behold God’s goodness, faithfulness, mercy, love, care, sustenance, provision, and grace in our lives. As we whisper “thank you” to our gracious Father, our hearts settle into contentment and joy. Our lives preach to the world that God is faithful.
This is the fruit of thankfulness.
Brittany Allen resides in Ohio with her husband and their son. She’s a writer, co-host of the Treasuring Christ Podcast, and the Social Media Coordinator for Gospel-Centered Discipleship. Summer, reading, theology, coffee, and her son’s giggles are a few of her simple joys. You can follow her on Instagram and read more of her writing on her blog.
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