Gratitude: Living Joyfully (Gospel Topics Series Book 16)

The joy of gratitude is measured by different people and in different ways, but no one can deny that there is joy in giving, which in turn often causes the gratitude in another. Gratitude's joy is from the heart and is the response of something received from another. Can there be a greater gratitude of joy than the one that comes from recognizing the gifts of the Creator to the creature?

Gratitude One
Gratitude for gifts received. How much can we say about gratitude? Gratitude is part of our everyday lives, yet often it remains obscured by more sensible experiences. We receive gratitude from others and we give thanks to others daily. Often these moments of gratitude come to us spontaneously and at the moment. A person opens a door for us or gives us a place in line at a fast-food restaurant and we are pressed for time. We are the recipients of benefits from God which ought to cause us to be in constant thanksgiving to God. Just one of God’s gifts to us ought to excite us to constant thanksgiving, but often we find ourselves in a state of mind and heart that make suss wonder why we ought to be thankful to God. Is it because we find ourselves being taken over by the Spirit of selfishness? Perhaps we have grown accustomed to God and we believe that we ought to have all these gifts as belonging to ourselves? Whatever the reason of our ingratitude we ought to bring ourselves to a stand still and recount the gifts of God to ourselves and enter more deeply into our lives and bring ourselves to a new level of gratitude. St. Paul said this very simply when he asked Christians “what do you have that you have not received it?” This is the very basis of our gratitude. There is no good we can name, either natural or supernatural, which has come from anything we have done to deserve it from God. We ought to sincerely ask ourselves these kinds of questions to find out whether we have the true Spirit of gratitude in our hearts. If our gratitude is but a false and plastic sort of returning thanks to God, then it will find no place in the Kingdom. Our gratitude ought to be real and true. Jesus said the Father seems those who “worship in spirit and truth.”
The Book of Chronicles speaks about the people making thanks to the Lord every mooring:

They must be present every morning to offer thanks and to praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening; (1 Chr. 23:30)

The thanks the people of God give is often written down as a communal offering to God and the thanks they offer is done in a festive celebration with praise:

When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the LORD, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to “give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever,” the building of the LORD’s temple was filled with a cloud. (2 Chr. 5:13)

The Old Testament usually marks the action of God among this person with an acknowledgement in the form of praise and thanksgiving. Let’s consider the benefits of gratitude or thanks for a minute. What do you think the Israelites felt when they gathered together to praise and thank the Lord for intervening in their life? Do you believe they felt strengthened in their vocation as the Chosen People? They were! Wouldn't anyone who had received the gift of love from God not feel acknowledged. It seems that when the Chosen people acknowledged God in song, praise and thanks, it was also an acknowledgement of who God was for them. Another benefit was the weak were strengthened by the stronger. Those with good faith and active faith were able to offer encouragement for those whose faith had become weak. Gratitude and thanksgiving to God benefit the giver of thanks.