Why Being Grateful Goes Beyond Circumstances

Imagine this: you are a Christian, living at the same time as Jesus, and you are locked up because of your faith. Even though your conditions are dire, your mission does not change: so, you decide to continue writing letters to other churches and glorifying God’s name in the midst of your chains.

I bet none of you related to this, but this is exactly what happened to the apostle Paul. While he was under the most dire circumstances, somehow his outlook on life remained the same. I find it amazing that Paul’s faith was so strong that he continued to sing praises to God and encourage others in the same grateful way.

The more I think about this epic story of faith, the more impressed I become with how Paul stayed optimistic and focused on his goal of glorifying God, even though his circumstances gave him no reason to. How did he do it?

Finally, I came to the conclusion: the reason that Paul was able to stay firm in his faith, despite him literally being imprisoned, was because of his grateful attitude. While he was in prison, he wrote four books of the Bible: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Those are the books of the Bible that I find to be the most uplifting, because the author has such an encouraging and positive message to share. If Paul hadn’t had such a close relationship with God, I could definitely picture him sitting in a jail cell, simply feeling sorry for himself…I know that is what I would do!

So, I decided to share some things that the Bible has to say about being grateful and giving thanks to God. I know that the chance of any of you getting sent to prison because of your faith is pretty low, but we all find ourselves in some kind of mental prison. In that case, the only thing that can rescue you from the trap you set for yourself is an uplifting attitude and a joyous spirit.

Gratitude in the Psalms

Lately, I have been reading through Psalms, and the more I look back at my notes from previous chapters, the more I realize that David (the main author of the Psalms I’ve read so far) has a really great way of turning what was once his mourning into praise for what God is doing in his life, and what he is going to do. One example of this is in Psalm 13:

1 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4 Lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him’, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

In the first four verses, David asks a crucial question that, at the time I first read this, I asked often: “How long?”. I’m not a Bible scholar, so I could not tell you all the context of this psalm, but it is clear that David is experiencing a lot of suffering. He has no other choice but to plead with God, even to beg, how long this will all end. The beginning of this psalm shows how David is sick of being stuck in this figurative prison, and wants to be done. I understand this, and I know that you do too.

However, I find that the thing that makes this chapter so spectacular is that it doesn’t end with David feeling sad and hopeless. Instead, David directs his feelings from this sad state to worshipping God and praising him, despite what emotions he displayed before this. It is so amazing to see how a man that truly loves God is able to turn his eyes to him, even after everything he’s been through. The last two verses say this: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me”. No matter what your circumstances are, if you have at any point in your life accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, you have a reason to be grateful. Salvation is the best thing you could ever receive, and it never goes away, so you can always be thankful for God saving you from an eternity in hell. Because nothing you do can take away your salvation, you have no excuse to praise God for his mercy and grace that gave you a ticket to heaven!

Besides, the Bible literally tells us to always be thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. It would be a lot easier if the Bible said to “give thanks when it is easy to”, but it didn’t! I believe that the most crucial times to be grateful for all God has done for you is when it is hard to find things to be grateful for.

For example, let’s go back to David in Psalm 13. Once he directed his feelings towards worship and gratitude for his salvation, he realized that God had actually provided him with so much! Once you start to look for things that God has provided for you, it becomes easier and easier over time to recognize these things instead of complaining about things in your life that aren’t going as you planned. After a while of having an attitude of gratitude (yes, it does sound weird when you say it), you’ll find that it is a pattern, even a new way of life, and it totally changes your perspective.

Next time you find that your circumstances are less than ideal, take a break from complaining and looking at everything that is going wrong, and instead start with things that God has provided you. Start with things you see around you: water, a safe house, loving family and fun friends, the clothes you are wearing, and things of that nature. Then, start analyzing different parts of your life to see how many little things God put in there for a reason, to bless you, even if you didn’t realize it at first.

I find that whenever I do this, I can have a new outlook on my day and see situations much differently, and it is yet another thing that I am extremely grateful for. If you need inspiration for finding things to be grateful for, the book of Psalms is filled with great examples. Some that I find worth mentioning are Psalms 8, 30, 33, 40, 77, 100, 106, 118. I know that is a lot of them, but I challenge you to read them, and to find other places, both in and out of Psalms, where people glorify God instead of sitting in their sadness.

How Gratitude has Changed Me

I know that I have mentioned my journey with gratitude a few times already, but now is the time for me to fully unveil how gratitude has revolutionized my outlook on life, especially in the last year.

For a very long time, I never considered gratitude as something that important, and I only really showed thankfulness to God when I had a great day or when something amazing happened to me. When Thanksgiving came around every year, I would just say that I was thankful for family and friends, and then just move on with my life.

At the very end of 2021 (literally December 30th), I opened up a new journal and wrote “Gratitude Journal” on the first page. From that day forward, I challenged myself to write down three different things that I was grateful for. The first day, I said things like food and water, my education, my healthy body, and the people in my life, but I quickly realized that it was pretty surface level to keep writing these things down every day. Don’t get me wrong, these are amazing things, and I am truly grateful for them, but gratitude is pretty much worthless if you just recite a few things over and over. Instead, I learned to analyze each part of my life and look for things to be grateful for. Sometimes, I would write about how thankful I was for a certain event that happened that day, like going to volleyball practice or having a night with friends. Other times, on days where it felt like nothing really happened, things like warm showers and relaxing nights suddenly became huge gifts! Think about it: after a long week, taking a night to cuddle up with your family and hot cocoa while watching a movie can be such a blessing!

At the beginning of May, I challenged myself to write not just three, but ten different things every day that I am grateful for. When I came back from vacation, I appreciated the amazing night sky I saw, how calm I felt after taking an entire week off of school and the hassles of everyday life, and even the people who took care of me when I got sick (that’s another story). After a really fun day of hanging out with friends and getting lots of coffee, I praised God for teaching me how to have fun and be myself, and not caring about what other people think about me. Even after the really hard days, when I opened up my gratitude journal before bed, I still found 10 different things to be grateful for, and 10 different ways God had blessed me that day. Whether it was my perseverance, the kindness of people close to me, or even things like eating dinner with my family, there were still so many great things that happened that day!

After doing this for a few months, I began to see new habits popping up in my day. At school, right before lunch, I would pray to God and tell him three things that I was grateful for that morning, and three things that I was excited about for the rest of the day. Some days it was easy, and some days I was really racking my brain for things to be thankful for, but it always helped to reset my brain and have a joyous outlook on the rest of my classes.

Now, I consider gratefulness to be a much bigger part of my life than it was just a few months ago. Whenever something great happens, I take a second and praise God for blessing me so much, and even when I’m having a bad day, I am now more able to find the positives instead of sitting in my sadness. It reminds me of a verse in Philippians, which says “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer is becoming so different to me, because I am starting to learn what it means to come to God humbly and praise before asking for things.

I have no idea what your walk with gratitude looks like, but if it is something that you struggle with, I have no better advice than to start your own gratitude journal! It is such a blessing to be able to look back at your growth and see what God has provided for you in your past. If you are having trouble finding things to be grateful for, ask God to reveal the things that he has done and is doing in your life, and I can guarantee that you will begin to see things differently!

Gratitude is something that I will never stop practicing, and my hope is that one day my faith can be so strong that I can be like Paul: consistent in glorifying God and fulfilling his will for us, no matter what our circumstances may be.