Another Invitation to Experience and Express Gratitude to God
Scripture — Psalm 103:1-2 (NRSV)
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits.
Focus
I’d like to invite you to join me in setting aside an hour during this time of year for intensive and extensive gratitude. During this hour, consider all of God’s benefits and offer thanks for each one of them. The Lord deserves it. Your heart needs it. And I promise that doing this will make your celebration of Thanksgiving so much richer.
Devotion
In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, I invited you to join me in celebrating Thanksgiving, not just next Thursday, but beginning now. I explained one way to do this, namely, by setting aside time at the end of each day to remember the good things from the day and to thank God for them. Today, I’d like to invite you to join me in another expression of gratitude that I have found to be particularly meaningful.
The opening verse of Psalm 103 encourages us to bless the Lord with all that is within us. That’s a fine encouragement, to be sure. But I do wonder what will help us actually do this. What will help us bless and thank God so completely?
We find an answer, I believe, in the second verse of Psalm 103. There the psalm writer says to his soul, “Bless the LORD . . . and do not forget all his benefits.” As I reflect on this verse, I’m struck by how easy it is for me to forget all of God’s benefits. I tend to remember some of God’s gifts and offer appropriate thanks for them. But when I’m rushing about and stressed by many things, I so easily forget God’s benefits. I can easily take for granted not only God’s blessings, but the God “from whom all blessings flow.”
Yet, when I am intentional about paying attention to “all his benefits,” I find that I am able to bless the Lord with “all that is within me.” Well, that might be an exaggeration. But it is true that the more I reflect on God’s many gifts, the more I can offer wholehearted praise and thanks to God.
I have found the season of Thanksgiving to be an opportune time to pay particular attention to all of God’s benefits or, at least, to many more of them than usual. I know I’ve mentioned this before in my Life for Leaders devotions, but it seems good to describe my annual practice for you once again. Perhaps you’ll feel inclined to join me in it this year.
At some point on or near Thanksgiving Day, I spend an hour or so writing down in my journal everything for which I am thankful, especially things from the past year. At the top of a page, I write: “Dear God, I thank you for . . .” and then I start jotting down everything I can think of. Much of what I record is obvious. I thank God for my family (each person by name) and for blessings they’ve received in the last year in addition to their impact on my life. I thank God for my life, health, home, and work. I think of people who have meant a lot to me in the past year, like my colleagues at the De Pree Center or those who have generously supported our work. I offer thanks for my pastor and church, and for times I have experienced God’s grace in a new way. After a while, I branch out, thanking God for good things that have happened in the world in the last year. I try to let my mind wander freely as I jot down all that I am thankful for. I make sure to mention big things like salvation through Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so forth. If you were to see my list, you’d observe that it isn’t carefully crafted and organized. Rather, I let my mind and heart roam free. I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in me during this exercise, guiding me, reminding me, and renewing me in God’s loving grace.
As I do this exercise, a couple of things inevitably happen. First, I end up thanking God for things that I had previously taken for granted. Some of these are major and some are minor, but all are worthy of mentioning to God in gratitude. Often, I think to myself, “Oh my. I never even bothered to thank the Lord for . . . .” But I don’t get stuck in guilt over this omission. Rather, I make sure to offer the thanks God deserves.
The second thing that happens as I write down my yearly thanks is an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Even in difficult times, even in years with painful losses, I realize just how gracious God has been to me, how generous and kind. My heart becomes filled with true thanksgiving. I am humbled and joyful, moved by my experience of God’s goodness.
I’d like to invite you to join me in setting aside an hour during this time of year for intensive and extensive gratitude. During this hour, consider all of God’s benefits and offer thanks for each one of them. The Lord deserves it. Your heart needs it. And I promise that doing this will make your celebration of Thanksgiving so much richer.
Reflect
Have you ever done anything like what is described in this devotion? If so, what was it like for you?
When during the next ten days might you be able to set aside an hour for intensive and extensive gratitude?
Act
If possible, see if you can put an hour for gratitude into your calendar. Ideally, this will be a time when you are likely not to be interrupted by people, work, email, texts, or anything else. Then, do your best to keep this gratitude appointment with the Lord.
Pray
Gracious God, thank you for the encouragement of Psalm 103. I do want to bless you, not just with part of me, but with “all that is within me.” And I don’t want to forget all of your benefits. Help me, Lord, to remember . . . and to be grateful.
I’m thankful that you are present with me at all times. But I’m also grateful that you meet me in special times, especially when I can get away from all that distracts me from you. Help me, Lord, to make time in the next few days for intensive and extensive gratitude. Help me to remember all of your benefits and to thank you for them. May this truly be in my life a season of thanksgiving for you! Amen.
Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Best of Daily Reflections: The Lord Remembers We Are Only Dust.
Mark D. Roberts
Senior Strategist
Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a Senior Strategist for Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, where he focuses on the spiritual development and thriving of leaders. He is the principal writer of the daily devotional, Life for Leaders,...