What the Bible Says About the Power of a Grateful Heart
“Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation” Psalm 50:23.
I have seen this verse to be true in my life. To read the whole psalm for context, click here.
When I was in therapy and began to deal with my pain from my past, it was very difficult. And as I started to feel my pain, I became angry and bitter at God and people.
But after about 6 months of therapy, God began to show me I needed to give thanks for my blessings. After a while, I began to give thanks not only for my blessings, but for the things that caused me great pain as well. Especially my marriage.
At first it was hard. It was a discipline. But before long, I was genuinely thankful. Not only for my blessings. But even more so for the things that looked like curses.
What the Bible Says About a Grateful Heart: Transformational
And this “attitude of gratitude” is what caused my pain to transform me into a new creature. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
As I gave thanks day after day in the middle of my pain, I became stronger and healthier and wiser. In a word I began to be filled with the Spirit of Love.
The thank offerings I sacrificed to God really did prepare the way for God to save me from my sin. From my unhealthiness, immaturity, foolishness. In short, from my selfishness.
And not long after He began to save me from my sin and make me healthy, He began to save me from my miserable circumstances too.
A few years later, in my late thirties, I started nursing school. This enabled me to get the first significant job of my life. One where I was able for to make a decent wage for the first time. And eventually I got a master’s degree in nursing.
Before becoming a Christian. I would NEVER have had the discipline to graduate from nursing school. In fact, I didn’t even finish high school. I failed every class I ever took. Not hyperbole!
In addition to nursing school, the constant stress and strife of my marriage ended. And I had peace.
And He gave me promises for the future.
The long road to recovery from my extreme immaturity and unhealthiness began in earnest when I started giving thanks in the midst of, and for my pain.
First My Sin, Then My Circumstances
God saved me first from sin, and then from my wretched circumstances. And He did it when I begin to make sacrifices of thank offerings.
But I think it’s only when the thank offering is a sacrifice that it prepares the way for God to save us. I think the reason this is necessary is because it’s obedience. It’s death to sin, needs and self that transforms us.
My giving thanks in the midst of and for my pain was definitely an act of obedience at first. It was death to the sins of anger and bitterness and self-pity.
And it was death to the need to protect myself from hurt by being angry and bitter. No doubt, anger can keep us from feeling our pain. It’s a protective mechanism. But it can also, therefore, keep us from healing.
Preparing the Way for Salvation
Finally, being thankful was a death to myself because I was not allowing my need to be protected from my pain to be gratified.
When we give a sacrifice of thanksgiving in faith, before we actually see God’s salvation, we are preparing the way for His salvation to come. But we have to believe before we see.
In the kingdom of God, believing is seeing. To read a post related to What the Bible Says About the Power of a Grateful Heart, see How to Overcome Pride with Sheep,
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