Growth Begins with Gratitude
Although January is primarily known as the month of change, nothing really changes unless we change. Despite all the talk of new year’s resolutions, it is not until you take the first small step towards your goal that something happens. Growth requires patience. It is a steady repetitive flow of the same steps over and over. It is in embodying the fruit of the spirit and qualities necessary for God’s kingdom that real change can occur through you. After all, Jesus came to make all things new. Restoration, renewal, re-planting, and rebuilding are all part of His language. For the old to be thrown away, the subject must be broken open, raw and vulnerable, to begin to re-build from the ground up into a person who bears fruit. So how do we begin the process? We begin with gratitude.
Gratitude and Reflection
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Though gratitude seems like a small thing, it is such an important part of living a joy-filled life. Gratitude is not an emotion; it is a heart posture. The Bible tells us to give thanks in everything. Gratitude causes you to stop and reflect on all that you have and all that you have been through. It reminds you of all God has pulled you through and if He did it once, He will do it again. It reminds you that all the things you take for granted, someone else is praying for. It’s a humbling. It serves you to keep in mind that if you’re still here, there’s a purpose for you. I’ve been trying to start weekend mornings with writing a list of all the things I’m thankful for and thanking God for them. I reflect, I give thanks, and I praise Him. You see, gratitude is a form of praise. It’s taking the time to recount all the good Lord has done for you and through you and praising Him for it. It’s saying, “Thank You, You are so good to me, I love You.” I encourage you this week to find some quiet morning time and make a list. Sometimes seeing it all written down makes it come to life before your eyes, make it more real, and therefore makes all the history between you and God that more profound.
The Gift of Perseverance
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5.
When you have reflected on gratitude, it strengthens your motive for perseverance. If God has done all this through you, then there is so much more work left to do together. Maybe you’ve been slacking in some areas. Remember all that you have been blessed with and reflect on the lessons gained until now. Perseverance can seem tiring, but if you offer your heart to God, He will be your strength. Perseverance is not some magical problem solver that happens overnight. It takes work and time. It is repetitive and often disguised as tedious, boring labor. Here’s the thing. In order to see a change, there must be work put forth to achieve that change. It is often in the small, repetitive, and daily choices we make that lead us to become people who persevere and attain. One tiny step towards God is still a step towards God and the beginning of something larger beginning to unravel within you and through you. Perseverance is watering that small seed daily so that you may bear fruit and seeing the evidence of that fruit in your daily decisions.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season we will reap,
if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9.
The Daily Joy in Contentment
Perseverance leads to joy. It is a beautiful thing when you begin to see the mature fruit of your perseverance appearing in your life. Happiness is often confused as a final attainment on a long journey, but it is instead little moments experienced along the way that lead to being content. Contentment is finding joy in every moment and every season. It may be a Christian cliché to say that joy is found in Jesus, but it’s true. What does that even mean? It is found in following the continual steps of reflection, gratitude, praise, perseverance, obedience, and hope. Reflection and gratitude go hand in hand; gratitude leads to praise. Praising God leads to deciding to persevere in our obedience because of our love for our heavenly Father. Perseverance leads to hope and hope to joy. The joy of His presence and hope for His future return fills us with a happiness of contentment, knowing regardless of what comes our way, He is with us. We will never be alone. One day we will see Him, and our joy will be made complete. With this truth, we can rationalize what is truly important in this life and cut out all the things that no longer serve us or God in this process. We can take steps towards the kind of people we want to be. We can know there is purpose in the small, mundane, and daily tasks we tackle on the way to growth and joy.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakukk 3:17-19.
The Lord is Our Strength
Once you begin with gratitude, all these other wonderful qualities begin to unfold, complementing and encouraging each other on. With God by your side, all things are possible. There’s a line in the song Be Praised by Maverick City Music that says, “Let there never be a day that I don’t rise to bring you praise.” That line has stayed in my head and motivates me to start the morning with praise. I encourage you to begin the day with a mentality of gratitude and praise, persevere in the difficult moments (even the smallest of ones), and see how the joy of laying your burdens at the Lord’s feet begins to change you. See how you will begin to grow and bear fruit for the Lord. I’ll leave you with this beautiful reminder from Isaiah that when you’re feeling overwhelmed, deeply tired, and mentally weary on this journey, the Lord will be your strength (and that is truly a gift to be grateful for).
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31
