The Weekly Encourager – March 14, 2014 – Cycle of Gratitude

Have you ever been in a downer conversation, where one person starts grumbling about something, then others latch on to it, each story topping the last with more and more disagreeable comments? By the end, instead of feeling better, we're all feeling worse. This can happen at work, home, church, or out with friends. One person starts talking about how difficult her child/neighbor/boss/mother/teammate is, and another chimes in with a worse story. While it can be helpful to find others who identify with our struggles, it's equally important to preserve a positive perspective. As Christians, we are to be grateful people, characterized by thankfulness. It might be a good exercise to balance each negative remark with one or two positive ones.

Have you been in an encouraging conversation, where someone gives a compliment, then others catch the spark, chiming in with more good reports? One small word of praise can change the course of an entire interaction. Nancy Leigh DeMoss speaks of how grace leads to gratitude, which then leads to generous giving, resulting in more gratitude. Today I'm sharing more thoughts from her book Choosing Gratitude. She writes, “The beauty of Christian gratitude is that one little act of thanksgiving on our part – when directed toward or inspired by its rightful Recipient – can bound and rebound from one end of the kingdom to the other, not only blessing God, not only benefiting us, but even lodging itself in places and in people where God's love might never have been received any other way.”

“What has come down to us vertically has evoked hearty gratitude back to God. And out of His fullness, we have been inspired and enabled to shower gifts of grace horizontally in all directions, which in turn motivates even more thanksgiving to return vertically to God from other sources, thanks to what we've done (or more precisely, what God has done through us).

“It's kind of like the rain cycle. Much the same way as water comes down from the sky, replenishing the earth, then returning to the air in evaporated moisture, Christian gratitude keeps God's grace churning full circle...and leaving who knows how many fruits and flowers and refreshed lives in its trail of glory.”

“Imagine the impact in a world characterized by isolation, selfishness, and fractured relationships, if we were to adorn the gospel we profess to believe, with a culture of mutual care, concern, generosity, and sacrifice. The truth we proclaim would become believable. And God would be glorified.” Can we do that? Can we be cheerful, thankful, and generous with our words of praise, even when times are tough? Only if we have hearts transformed by grace. Only if we depend upon the Spirit of the Living God.

Be the reason someone smiles today.  Be the reason someone thanks God today.

God is faithful,

j