When You Need More Reasons to Be Grateful

Researchers are finally discovering what Scripture has been saying for thousands of years: gratitude changes everything. A study published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology tracked several hundred participants, dividing them into three groups. One group wrote down reasons for gratitude each day. Another listed their daily frustrations. A third recorded neutral, uneventful moments.

The results were striking. The gratitude-focused group experienced:

• Fewer physical symptoms
• More exercise
• Higher levels of joy and happiness
• Greater optimism
• Better emotional stability
• Stronger relationships

The researchers concluded that “a conscious focus on blessings” improves mental, emotional, and interpersonal health.

Modern medicine agrees. Doctors now use “gratitude interventions” to help cancer patients cope with fear, fatigue, and emotional strain. Listing reasons for thanksgiving consistently increases resilience, hope, and peace.

These findings are interesting—but not surprising. Science is finally catching up with Scripture. John writes to Gaius, “I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul” (3 Jn. 2). Gratitude is one of God’s means of making the soul well. Like forgiveness, it frees us from burdens we were never meant to carry and lifts the heart toward God.

When your gratitude fades, it isn’t because God stopped being good—it’s because you stopped noticing.

But as helpful as health benefits are, they’re not the deepest reasons to give thanks. The most lasting motivations come from who God is—and what God does. Biblical gratitude is rooted in the character and works of God.

Moved by God’s Character

In Knowing God, J. I. Packer wrote that the highest incentive in life is knowing the highest Being in existence. Nothing is more satisfying. Nothing is more stabilizing. Nothing ignites gratitude more than knowing God.

“What makes life worthwhile,” Packer said, “is having a big enough objective… and this the Christian has… For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?”

The more we know God, the more naturally we give thanks. Consider a few of His attributes:

• God’s Holiness. His holiness is the sum of His goodness and power—His perfect, incomparable purity. “Give thanks to his holy name” (Ps. 97:12). Through His holiness and grace, He makes sinners righteous.
• God’s Goodness. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” (Ps. 106:1). His goodness means He does good to His children—and works all things for their good (Rom. 8:28).
• God’s Salvation. God rescues the undeserving. “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). Salvation is the greatest reason for gratitude.
• God’s Grace. Beyond saving grace, He showers us with common grace: food, friendship, beauty, breath. “Everything created by God is good… if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:4).
• God’s Victory. He triumphed over sin and death—and gives that victory to us. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
• God’s Word. He revealed Himself so we would not be left in the dark. “We also thank God constantly” because His Word “is at work in you” (1 Thess. 2:13).
• God’s Presence. Through Christ, we are welcomed into His presence: “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving” (Ps. 95:2).
• God’s Will. It is His will that we “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18). Gratitude pleases Him. Having a clear conscience benefits us.
• God’s Heaven. He is preparing a place for us, where angels cry, “Holy, holy, holy,” and believers gather to give thanks forever (Rev. 4:8; 11:17).

The grateful leper in Luke 17 saw all this in miniature. Jesus healed him because of divine character—holiness, compassion, mercy, and grace. Then, the man didn’t merely admire the miracle; he adored the Miracle Worker.

True gratitude always traces the gift back to the Giver.

Moved by God’s Works

God’s works are endless. His mercies crowd every corner of creation and every corner of our lives. Matthew Henry once listed thirty-two reasons to give thanks in prayer. Among them:

• When man was lost and undone, God redeemed and saved him (Tit. 3:3-6).
• For the eternal purposes and counsel of God concerning man’s redemption (Eph. 1:3-4).
• For the promises from the beginning that God would redeem man (Gen. 3:15).
• For the perfection of Christ (Matt. 27:54).
• For Christ’s intercession on our behalf (1 Jn. 2:1).
• For the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).
• For the preserving of the church (Matt. 16:18).
• For the communion of the saints and the fellowship of believers (1 Cor. 10:17).
• For divine grace to sanctify and preserve us (Ps. 138:3).
• For support in adversity (2 Cor. 1:3-5).
• For the faithfulness of God’s promises (Josh. 21:45).

The list could continue forever. As the Christian hip-hop artist The Phanatik once said, “If I could rhyme for forever twice, you still won’t have heard one-third of the words that would serve to describe Christ.”

Our infinite Lord is worthy of infinite gratitude.

When your gratitude fades, it isn’t because God stopped being good. It’s because you stopped noticing. Look again. Look deeper. Look higher. His character fills the heavens.
His works fill the earth. His grace fills your life.

Like the healed man who couldn’t stay silent, let every glimpse of God’s goodness send you back to Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving. Let this be your gratitude intervention.

This article was adapted from the book Grateful Again by Jacob Abshire.