An Attitude of Gratitude!

By Helen Jesze, 3^rd September 2021

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Psalm 107:1 ESV

“He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law,”

Isaiah 42:4 KJV

A legend says that a man found the barn where Satan kept all the seeds he sows into the hearts of men and women. More than any others, were seeds of discouragement. “But” he told the man, “There is one type of heart where this seed does not easily take root.” “Oh, what is that?” asked the man. Satan answered, “A grateful heart!”

The Bible is full of verses telling us to give thanks and to praise God for all his mercies. Here the Psalmist encourages us to give thanks to God for “he is good, and his steadfast love endures forever”. When we are discouraged we think of our problems, our needs, what we don’t have and what we think we should have. People and Satan may tell us we will never amount to anything, we have nothing to offer, we have made too many mistakes and how could God forgive us again for the same thing?! Our eyes, heart and thoughts are fixed and focused on the negative, instead of remembering that we do not serve a person, but we serve an Almighty God whose very essence is LOVE; a God who gave the very best that he had to save us from our sins and set us free — his Son Jesus Christ, so how much more will he not, with him, freely give us all things!

When the armies of the Philistines had burned down the city of Ziklag and captured all the wives and children, David’s men even wanted to stone him. But we read that David “encouraged and strengthened himself in the Lord”. He remembered the sure mercies of his God in the Past, and that they were just as sure that very day, in the Present! He threw off discouragement, he and his men rode after the Philistines, overcame them and set free all their captive families!

An Attitude of Gratitude comes from a heart centred on Jesus, remembering those thousand and one mercies he has shown to us, and that he is steadfast, not a fair weather friend, but will be so in the Future as well. It has been said that “Our Attitude determines our Altitude”.The altitude tells you how high or how low you are on the mountain. An Attitude of Gratitude will take us higher in God, will cause us to develop and grow in our Christian walk and relationship with Jesus.

The above verse in Isaiah is talking about “The Suffering Servant” who was to come, Jesus our Redeemer, and says that he will “not fail nor be discouraged”, until he has accomplished all he set out to do. I am sure that Jesus, as the Son of Man, was often discouraged at the wickedness, suffering, opposition he encountered, but Jesus, the Son of God, saw further than that, fulfilling the will of his Father and did not fail or get discouraged.

My late husband, George, used to say, “There are many people with the ‘ministry of discouragement’ and Satan sees to it that this ‘ministry’ never dies out!” I am sure that every one of us does not want to have this ‘ministry’! Instead, let’s seek to have the “ministry of encouragement” to those around us, and even if we are in adverse circumstances at the moment, with the Lord’s help, let’s start developing that Attitude of Gratitude, and see him move on our behalf!