Many times throughout the Bible it tells us to be thankful. Having a thankful heart is very important to God. This not only affects our relationship with other people, but it also affects our relationship and our heart towards God. Without a thankful heart we can become self-centered and bitter. This will affect our ability to praise and worship God effectively.

Here are three reasons why being thankful is important

1. Being thankful keeps our heart in The right position towards God

When we are ungrateful it keeps us from seeing God accurately. Our hearts can become bitter and this would greatly affect our relationship with God. We may start to pray less, read our bible less, and feel distant from God. This is very dangerous and needs to be addressed as soon as we recognize our relationship with God has shifted.

An ungrateful heart also makes us think that we’ve achieved everything on our own and forget about all the good things God has done in our lives.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This verse tells us we should rejoice always. It commands us to give thanks in all circumstances because God is Sovereign over everything in our lives. He is worthy of our praise and worthy of our thanksgiving.

2. Thanksgiving help us see how gracious God is

Being thankful can also help us to see how gracious, loving and kind God is. We all need to take the time to pause, reflect and count our blessings. You may not have everything you want in your life, but God has given you so much. There are things that you have that people are praying for. 

Ultimately, one thing we should thank God for is what He did for us on the cross. The fact that he sent his son Jesus to die for us. That we can experience eternity with him. He has defeated sin and death.

If we acknowledge Him, The One and Only God and surrender our lives to him we can enjoy and rest in God forever. I don’t know about you all, but that is something I thank God for every day. Nothing can compare to that!

One tip to practice being thankful is to wake up every morning and think about every blessing that you have. For example, your car, food, water, shelter, clothes, shoes, friends, family, jobs, and anything else you can think of. This will help create a thankful heart and you will be able to experience the joy of God more.

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

These verses remind us to give thanks to the Lord because he is good and every good gift we have is from God. We truly serve an awesome God!

3. A grateful heart protects us from Pride and idolatry

Though I mentioned this earlier, a grateful heart protects us from being prideful and idolizing other things.  Many times ungratefulness stems from idolatry and covetousness.

We often want something that we don’t have yet and begin to resent God, because he hasn’t given us every little thing that we want.

The truth is God is good and he delights in giving us good gifts. But just because God doesn’t give us everything we want when we want it,  doesn’t mean we should become prideful and become our own Gods of our lives.

This only leads down a road of darkness and more sin. God is God and he sees everything. He knows the beginning all the way to the end.

He knows when we are ready to receive certain gifts, and he knows what would be best for us, for his glory. Remain thankful and humble and God will take care of everything else that you need. Ultimately, we should be so grateful just to be able to rest in the Lord’s presence. 

For instance, I remember in the beginning of my walk with God I had become very ungrateful. I was discontent because I really wanted to be married. I decided that God was taking too long and I started to take things into my own hands.

I became very distant from God and fell into different kinds of sins that really hurt me. I was so blind by my ungratefulness that I missed all the beautiful things God was doing in my life and I took it for granted.

I ask for forgiveness, repented and asked the Lord to help me in this area. I began to thank God for how He was blessing others. Slowly, my ungrateful heart started to transform.

Thank goodness we serve a merciful and loving God. He forgave me, restored me, and has helped me to cultivate a thankful heart. 

Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.

God is good and He is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. By working with the Lord to cultivate a thankful heart, you will bring glory to God and  experience so much joy and peace. Lastly, we will experience God in a way that will bless us and others.