“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.” – Eckhart Tolle

The habit of gratitude is an amazingly powerful force that we can use to expand our happiness and sense of contentment.

Dear friend, an attitude of gratitude helps us to get our eyes off ourselves, and helps us to focus on God. When we maintain a daily attitude of gratitude, it causes us to live with the consciousness and the mindfulness that we are not in control, but that we serve a reliable, faithful and trustworthy Almighty God who is fully in charge of everything that concerns us. Indeed, an attitude of thankfulness and gratitude helps to keep us in a place of humility and total dependency on God, as we recognize how much we need Him.

Friends, when we maintain a heart of and a culture of gratitude, it gives no space for complaining. Truth is, it is impossible to be truly thankful and filled with negativity and ungratefulness at the same time.

There are people who just complain every time about their life and everything, they are never grateful for anything. Nothing gets better for the complainer and the murmurer. As a matter of fact, when you murmur, your problems become more.

Dear friend, have you observed that of all insects/animals, it is flies and mosquitoes that complain every time? And because they murmur every time, they are killed cheaply. I believe there is a supernatural defence and protection you enjoy when you maintain a habit of thankfulness and gratitude to God

There are folks who every time they come to God’s presence, they are never happy; they keep complaining, they are always conscious of all the problems in their lives and never grateful for the goodness and mercies of God they experience daily.

Dear friends, I like you to know that Heaven does not operate on the currency of tears, it operates on the currency of thanks. Heaven doesn’t show people pity, but it responds to an established principle of GRATITUDE.

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” – Psalms 100:1-4

SO, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT BLESSINGS OF GRATITUDE?

• GRATITUDE MAKES YOU CONSCIOUS OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE.

An ingrate is never aware or conscious of what God is doing in His life or around him/her. For example, the children of Israel, because of their attitude of ingratitude, they were unmindful and forgetful of all the amazing wonders and goodness of God in their lives. The more grateful you are every day, the more God makes you aware and conscious of what He is doing for you and to you.

• GRATITUDE MAKES YOU FEEL GREAT ABOUT LIFE, AND IT ALSO MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF.

Instead of being depressed and discouraged, when you become conscious and focused on what God is doing in your life, you will begin to realize that things are not so bad after all. Gratitude to God makes you feel better about your life. People who are depressed and always contemplating suicide are mostly folks who believe nothing good is happening in their lives. Gratitude to God changes everything.

• GRATITUDE INCREASES OUR HOPE IN GOD.

Gratitude to God increases your confidence and hope in God, such that you begin to encourage yourself: “If God has done this much, He will do much more for me.” Gratitude to God is a display of faith in God. Your gratitude is beyond saying: “Lord thank you”, it is also you declaring: “Lord I believe you!”

• GRATITUDE STRATEGICALLY POSITIONS YOU FOR DIVINE HELP.

A life of ingratitude makes you hinders/prevents you from accessing more blessings of God. Gratitude strategically makes you aligned for the blessings and visitations of the Almighty God. By our gratitude, our issues are always in God’s view. The people of this world can remember you by tears, but God remembers you by gratitude. So, a life of gratitude strategically positions us for God’s help.

• GRATITUDE FRUSTRATES THE INTENTIONS OF ENEMY.

If a life of thanksgiving and gratitude is God’s will and desire us, that means, the devil never wants us to be grateful to God. The devil understands what we are losing by ingratitude, so he will do everything to make us ingrates and to live a life of murmuring and complaining. But, when you begin to daily live a life of thanksgiving to God, you frustrate the expectations and programs of the enemy against you.

PERSONAL DECLARATIONS:

–Lord, I thank you for my life, I thank you for everything, I thank you for your blessings, I thank you for your love, I thank you for your Divine Presence I enjoy daily… Lord, I thank you for everything!

 –I decree over my life that by the grace of God, from today I am living a life of gratitude, I am focusing on what God is doing in my life, and I refuse to live a life of ingratitude to the Almighty God, in the name of Jesus.