5 Scriptures to Cultivate Gratitude
Well, I thought I would try my hand at a classic Thanksgiving-week post. I’m sure you’ve seen quite a few articles about gratitude tucked in between the early Christmas decorations and holiday shopping ads. While I don’t want to just add to the noise, I do want to briefly weigh in about the deep Biblical gratitude we can reflect on now and throughout the rest of the year.
Gratitude for the Christian finds its roots in the cross. We know that without Jesus we are completely hopeless. We are all sinners before a perfect and holy God. Our sin has created a massive debt against the God who gave us life and there was nothing we could do to repay it. It marked us ‘guilty’ and the punishment was an eternity separated from him.
But God…
…being rich in mercy, chose to save us. Not by any merit of our own. But because of his great love for us. He sent his son Jesus into the world to live a perfect, holy life. This life would be the sacrifice the sin of the world demanded. His death would pay the price we could never pay and cancel the debt that stood against us.
This glorious, unbelievable, undeserved miracle secures hope, peace and joy for the believer despite any and all hardship.
And yet, we so often forget this truth. Let me rephrase. I so often forget this truth. I let my circumstances overwhelm me, I take counsel from my feelings instead of the Word, and I live my life as if this is all there is. But if we took up the practice to pause in gratitude of what our great God has done for us on a daily basis, our sights would shift away from our chronic tunnel vision and back to the truth that it is well with our souls.
Below you’ll find 5 passages of Scripture that remind us of what we have to be thankful for. The gospel is glorious. Take some time this week and forever (but seriously) to reflect on these passages. Let the truth of His word drive you to worship. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Romans 5:6-8
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:1-10
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Colossians 2:13-15
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
1 Peter 1:3-7
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 12:28
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,”
