Spiritual Practice: Gratitude

I introduced this spiritual practice on Friday, simply listing some things I was grateful for. Today, I want to expand on this by providing a way to use gratitude as a spiritual practice. In a time of fear and anxiety, focusing on that for which we are grateful is a way to remember and re-focus on God’s presence.

As many of you know, I use Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s book, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, for a lot of my pastoral work. I recommend it. It gives a three-page description to dozens of spiritual disciplines and ways to make them a regular practice.

For each practice, she lists the Desire of the practice, the definition, the Scripture its based on, what the practice includes, and the God-given fruit each practice produces.

Here’s the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook entry for Gratitude:

Desire: “to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to live with a grateful heart, cognizant of GOd’s work in my life and my abundant resources.”

Definition: “Gratitude is a loving and thankful response toward God for his presence with us and within this world. Though ‘blessings’ can move us into gratitude, it is not at the root of a thankful heart. Delight in God and his good will is the heartbeat of thankfulness.”

Scripture:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1-2).

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Practice Includes:

• Prayers and songs that focus on God’s generosity
• Gratefully giving and sharing all you are and have as a sign of your thankfulness to God
• Expressing gratitude to others; the habit of saying ‘thank you,’ ‘I am so grateful,’ ‘you are so kind’ and so forth
• Gratefully noticing God’s presence and gifts throughout the day
• Practicing an abundance mentality; counting the blessings in life
• Keeping a gratitude journal of the myriad gifts God has brought you

God-Given Fruit:

• Keeping company with Jesus not matter what happens
• Being aware of the abundance of gifts, benefits, mercies and grace that have bee poured into your life
• Curbing critical tendencies by upstaging them with thanksgiving
• Seeing what you have as quickly as you see what you don’t have
• Treasuring and valuing people by thanking them often and clearly for who they are to you or to someone else
• Daily thanking the Lord for his presence in your life
• Noticing your lack of gratitude and repenting of the idol that has your heart at the moment
• Receiving everything you have as a gift rather than as an entitlement

Calhoun suggests watching this TED Talk, titled, “Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.” It is a lovely 10-minute journey of gratitude that I thoroughly enjoyed while being stuck inside!

I would encourage you to practice this spiritual discipline of gratitude in the midst of our current hardship. Here are some practical ways to do so. Related to the “Practice Includes” portion, Calhoun adds these ways to practice gratitude:

1. “Begin a gratitude journal by keeping a record of the ‘abundances’ God has given you. Next to each abundance write what it means to you to have a God who interacts and intervenes in your life. Notice what you have been given that you did not deserve. What do you want to say to God about these things?
2. End every day by saying thank you to God for at least one thing. Then tell God what that one thing meant for you.
3. Write a letter of thanks to someone who has touched your life in the past year, the past month, the past week.
4. Get a current hardship firmly in mind. How do you feel about this hardship? Tell the truth to God. Where is there evidence for God’s presence in this hardship? Is there anything you can be thankful for? If you cannot find God in your hardship, spend some time with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What does he want to tell you?
5. What sorts of things tend to encourage you in thankfulness? Praise songs? Worship? Time spent with friends? Giving and receiving presents? Plan ways of incorporating the things that encourage thankfulness into your life on a regular basis. (Drew’s note: this is obviously a different task now that we are stuck in our homes. However, it certainly is not impossible! Continue to search for things that tend to encourage you in thankfulness)
6. Hold a thank you party. Invite the people you want to honor with a thank you. (Drew’s note: do this via Zoom!)
7. Create a thank you scrapbook. Beside photos and pictures, write your prayers of thanksgiving.
8. Notice your tendency to make comparisons that result in feelings of dissatisfaction or entitlement. Practice abstaining from comparative statements about what you don’t have. Instead give thanks for what you do have.”

I’m grateful for each of you. I pray that you are doing well and staying healthy. God bless you as your practice gratitude!