Gratitude Is a Key Indicator of Your Spiritual Health

If you are like me, often I like simple ways to determine how things are going. For instance, don’t you love vehicles that do not simply tell you a tire is low, but instead, identify the tire and how much air is in it? Wow! The first time I had a car that could tell me the pressure in each tire, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. Why? Because it was a diagnostic that was helpful. The indicator light clued me in to a problem and the digital screen explained it. In a similar way, in your walk with the Lord, there are a few key indicators of how you are doing, and today we consider one such indicator. Gratitude is a key indicator of your spiritual health.

The Bible teaches three important reasons to be grateful.

First, we should be grateful because it is the will of God for each of us.

Look how the Apostle Paul describes it: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:16-18). He emphasizes in everything to give thanks. Not only here, but Paul mentions it in other key texts as well. When explaining the results of walking in the Spirit, he writes: “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20). Here, instead of referencing in everything, the Apostle Paul describes it always for all things. As a follower of Jesus Christ, then, gratitude holds a high place in our lives. Being grateful is both the will of God and evidence of walking in the Spirit. To the extent we are not grateful, to that same extent we will not be in the will of God or not walking in the Spirit.

Second, Jesus gives us the power to be content, which is directly connected to gratitude.

The Apostle Paul again helps us think through this issue. He writes:

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:11-13)

Notice how God through Christ provides each of His followers the power to be content regardless of their situation. Think through how essential and powerful the power is that works in us if it provides the capacity to be content in everything.

Paul stated in an earlier chapter of the same book, “Do all things without complaining and disputing” (Phil 2:14). Friends, this is only possible through the power of Christ which works in us. Here, Paul emphasizes the power of Christ to help us because he understands the impossibility of living this way outside of Jesus.

When we consider how tough our circumstances can actually be, we begin to understand why it takes the power of Christ working in us to make contentment even possible. Tough circumstances require great power for contentment. Watch what happens though. As you are content through the power of Christ which works in you, then your level of gratitude will be high.

Third, God explains the purpose of our various situations, which should lead us to greater gratitude.

James, the half-brother of Jesus and first pastor of the church of Jerusalem, provides for us the purpose of our various situations. When we understand our situations and what God is doing in the midst of them, we can respond in greater gratitude for them. When we fail to understand the purpose of our situations, we will struggle finding any contentment or maintaining our gratitude in the midst of it. Notice what he writes:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (James 1:16-18)

James refers to good and perfect gifts. This is critical to see and understand. To what is he referring? He is talking about your present circumstance – whatever that is. Your situation or pressure-filled circumstances provide the context where God is growing you into Christlikeness (cf., James 1:2-12). In the midst of your pressured situations, God is helping you become a kind of first fruit of His creation. In other words, God desires to use your circumstances to help you become a prime example of what He created to be set apart to Himself — a sanctified person, made holy for His divine purposes (Amplified Bible).

Therefore, in the midst of those circumstances, we can be content or full of gratitude because we understand the purpose of what God is doing and what He intends to happen in us through them.

However, if we are not content and not grateful, we set ourselves up to sin. The lack of gratitude and contentment provides a fertile environment for our wants, desires, or lusts (something we do not have that we want) to control us. As those wants, desires, or lusts control our hearts, we sin (cf., James 1:13-15).

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