Cultivating A Grateful Heart Through Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Rejoice- to be in a state of happiness and well-being, rejoice, be glad

Without Ceasing- with unflagging resolve, used 4x’s in the NT all in relation to prayer.

Give Thanks- to be impressed with a feeling of gratitude for kindness received and to be ready and willing to acknowledge it.

All of these words are commands and all are in the present, continuous sense. You must keep on rejoicing. You keep on praying. You must keep on giving thanks.

Why is gratitude so important in the life a believer?

“Our propensity to forget is a mark of our fallenness. Because of this, we should view remembering and gratitude as a discipline, a daily and intentional act, a conscious choice.” —Kenneth Boa

Why must being grateful on a daily basis be a discipline?

“Rebellion against God does not begin with the clenched fist of atheism but with the self-satisfied heart of the one for whom ‘thank you’ is redundant.” —Os Guinness

What does Mr. Guinness mean by that statement?

1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

Paul makes this statement, “What do you have that you did not receive?”

What have we receive from God? Our life, our health, our intelligence, our abilities, our giftedness.

What happens to us when we stop seeing these things as gifts from God?

If things are going well we become presumptuous. We become entitled. Therefore, we forget about God or we acknowledge Him, but in a very shallow and mechanical way. Why?

If things are going badly what happens? We become bitter and resentful. Why?

Ephesians 5:3–4 (CSB)

But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks.

Two opposite heart attitudes. What is the heart attitude of a greedy person? Greed wants what it does not have. So if you forget that everything you have is a gift from God and that everything you have you deserve and then some, it is only natural to want what? So a greedy heart focuses on what it does not have. If you spend all your time thinking about what you don’t have what will that do to your spirit? Murmuring and complaining. Ungrateful. Discontent. Why?

Paul wants the Ephesians to fight a greed heart with the grace of thanksgiving or gratitude.

Gratitude is the attitude of the heart that is thankful for anything and everything the Lord gives.

“Thankfulness is the opposite of lust because the thankful heart has stopped prowling around for everything it doesn’t have and is overwhelmed with appreciation for all the good things it already possesses.” —Heath Lambert

“The logic of lust requires you to be discontent with what you have and pay attention to all the things you don’t have. The logic of thankfulness requires you to focus on what you have already received and to be overcome with thanks. Gratitude is the opposite of greed.” —Heath Lambert

One of the ways we can practice the discipline of gratitude is through prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

This week I want you to try an experiment. I want you to try to give thanks and complain at the same time. You cannot do it!

“To give thanks is to remember the spiritual and material blessings we have received and to be content with what our loving Lord provides, even when it does not correspond to what we had in mind.” —Kenneth Boa

“Gratitude is a choice, not merely a feeling, and it requires effort especially in difficult times. But the more we choose to live in the discipline of conscious thanksgiving, the more natural it becomes, and the more our eyes are opened to the little things throughout the course of the day that we previously overlooked.”

What little things happened to you this week that you did not thank God for?

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the play and the opera, and grace before the concert and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing; and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” —G.K. Chesterton

“Every gift I acknowledge reveals another and another until, finally, even the most normal, obvious, and seemingly mundane event or encounter proves to be filled with grace.” —Henri Nouwen

Example: I learned, from one of the books I have read, to practice waking up in the morning and telling God, “Thank you God, for allowing me one more day to breathe your air.”