Gratitude is a Choice

The older I get, the more thankful and truly grateful, I am.

It’s the accumulation of life experience that brings both humility before God’s grace and confidence in His promises. It’s knowing that there’s so much less that I can control than I had thought when I was younger. It’s knowing that God is good through the lowest valleys of life and the highest peaks. It’s learning that there are spiritual lessons in those deep trenches that God has used to broaden my shoulders and deepen my faith.

Our guest, Danielle Strickland, shared about how gratitude is a choice—a continual, daily choice—and a weapon. Truly, a necessary weapon in the spiritual arsenal of the Christian that is effective and powerful against bitterness, self-pity, doubt, anxiety, resentment, covetousness and anger.

In our Bible passage from Lamentations 3:21-25, despite the destruction and suffering that threatens to overwhelm him, Jeremiah declares, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’”

There are seasons in life. The long, dark, winter-bitter night of the soul and the hope and joy of the spring and summer. Through all this, God is moving, reminding and ultimately drawing us closer to Him, our eyes off of this world to gaze into eternity, to long for that which we cannot lose.

In this season of Thanksgiving, reflect and consider the toughest moments of this past year and let us call to mind the steadfast love of the LORD. May He deepen our faith and fortify our hearts to receive all He has to give with true thanksgiving.

Lisa Pak is an Ordained Minister, a Youth Mobilizer and the Regional Director of Ontario & Nunavet for the Canadian Bible Society.