Oh, Hey, Thanks!

February 3, 2021·Abby PreJean

Have you ever done something thoughtful and generous for someone you love, and they don’t respond in the way you imagined? It’s a bummer. It’s an even bigger bummer when you do something thoughtful and generous for someone you don’t particularly care for, and they respond in the same way. In either situation, you must then wage warfare in the mind, combatting those questions that naturally and understandably come up. Questions like, “What just happened?” “The one time I try to do something nice…” “Should I have waited or not even done this at all?”

In reading Psalm 9, I’m stopped directly in my tracks in verse 1. Being the ESV gal that I am, my version read, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my WHOLE heart; I will recount all of Your wonderful deeds.”

It was a painful verse for me, because my mental time machine took me back to the few times recently where I haphazardly and half-heartedly thanked God for doing some pretty incredible stuff.

I get annoyed with myself when I do that. God has blessed me so richly, and I give Him the ol’, “Oh, hey, thanks!” Well, maybe not quite like that, but definitely something equivalent.

Maybe you do some of the same things too. And if you’re like me, I’m usually a day late and a dollar short. One hamburger short of a happy meal. All the idioms meaning that I screw up a lot (and sometimes am very ungrateful). But I want to change, and you can too.

So, let’s put our words into actions.

Here are some ideas we can use to express our gratitude to God:

You can make an “I’m grateful for…” list (this exercise is not limited to Thanksgiving, y’all).
Spend time talking to Jesus and thanking Him by name for all the gifts He has given you in recent days (5 minutes turns into 50 minutes really quick with this one).
Make it a point to train the heart and brain to thank Him in ALL circumstances.

Life will always give us plenty to complain about, and God will always give us more than enough to rejoice about. Let’s keep our hearts grateful and our voices thankful.

Pastor Abby PreJean