How to be grateful

From Great to Grateful

It is better to be great than good. But it is even better to be grateful. And if you are great and not grateful, then either you won’t recognize it, or you will give yourself credit for it.

“Poor man want to be rich Rich man want to be king And a king ain't satisfied 'Til he rules everything”

Springsteen, Badlands

Count

Count

God’s Past faithfulness (18)

and God’s Future promises (19)

In both instances, you need the word. You obviously need the bible to see the future promises of God. Lean on them, press into them, etc…

But you also need the word to help you count God’s past faithfulness. You’ve got to believe that you didn’t build that.

Feel speechless (20)

Feel speechless (20)

Connect them to the heart of God (21)

The heart of God (

“according to your own heart...”

This is God’s goodness on display. This is God’s heart.

The role of the word:

“because of your promise” (21)

“to make your servant know it” (21)

“according to all that we have heard with our ears.” (22)

In both instances (past faithfulness & future promises), you need the word. You obviously need the bible to see the future promises of God. Lean on them, press into them, etc…

In both instances (past faithfulness & future promises), you need the word. You obviously need the bible to see the future promises of God. Lean on them, press into them, etc…

But you also need the word to help you count God’s past faithfulness. You’ve got to believe that you didn’t build that.

And… you need the word to know the heart of God.

Community —

God’s work in the individual is on one scale of magnitude. God’s work in the community is on a greater scale of magnitude.

It is therefore easier to recognize. You’ve seen the posters of the grand canyon or the tetons with a bible verse about the earth declaringt he glories of God. But nobody ever sells a poster of ??? park with the same verse. ??? park is nice enough. But the scale of magnitude is limited. Sometimes, life is dark. Sometimes the blessings in a moment are fogged out by hardships — but rising above the fog is the mountain of church history, the mountain of the local church, the mountain of the invisible church, the mountain of your friends — and even in the fog, you can see the faithfulness of God.

But I think there’s something more happening here. David isn’t in a fog. He’s talking about God’s people like a grateful man would — because he is connecting the implications of God’s promises to him with the good of God’s people. The blessing God brings to David is going to be a blessing to God’s people.

So not only is this good for David, this is good for God’s people.

Don’t hoard your blessings.

You won’t know the full extent of your blessings until you have shared them with others. You’re seeing all the things your marriage is not. But look at what it is for your children.

God has blessed you with more wisdom than you know. But you don’t see it because you aren’t sharing it with the world.

More light than you know --- but you won’t appreciate its power until you take it into the darkness.

Prove it God! Courage — (27) Gratitude seems to recite God’s promises back to him. We see that very dramatically in this case. No sooner has God spoken them than David is speaking them back to God.