Overflowing with Gratitude

Dannah Gresh: It’s easy to slip into thinking that thankfulness depends on our circumstances. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth disagrees.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You see, the attitude of gratitude is not tied to anything that is temporal or that can be taken away from us. Because if your hope is tied to things that can be taken away from you, you’re going to be an insecure, ungrateful person!

The attitude of gratitude is independent of all of that. It’s a choice. It’s a choice to live a grace-infused lifestyle.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Choosing Gratitude, for November 18, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Here in the United States we always set aside the fourth Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving. That’s next week, as you know. For most of us it means eating a big meal with friends and family and maybe watching a football game.

But the Bible makes it clear that giving thanks involves a lot more than a feast . . . and isn’t optional. Here’s Nancy with more in the series “Christian Gratitude.”

Nancy: I received an email from a listener recently talking about a really hard time that she and her husband are going through, and I love the heart she expressed, even as they’re in that valley, that difficult place. She said, 

As my husband struggles with the diagnosis of multiple myeloma [which is cancer of the bone marrow], he and I are reminded that we have Jesus. His presence and His grace are our sunshine and our strength.

How we thank Him that He is providing us everything we need for life and for godliness as we go through this struggle together. Glory to His Name forever! Suffering is a form of His refining fire. To become like Jesus is the goal. We thank Him for whatever means He chooses to do just that, even if it is cancer.

Wow, what a heart that expresses! We talked yesterday about how the gospel combines our guilt with the grace of God that saves us and gives us what we don’t deserve—favor from God—and how that should result in an outpouring and an overflowing of gratitude and then generosity. Because, of all people in the world, Christians have reason for gratitude!

Here’s a woman who is facing something that is really hard! We all face those things in different ways. But she said, “It’s purposeful, and God is using this, and we want His purpose to be accomplished in our lives. In the midst of it, He’s giving us what we need, and we’re going to thank Him for whatever means He uses to make us like Jesus.”

Well, Thanksgiving is coming up just around the corner, and I love the Thanksgiving holiday! It’s such an important reminder that we have—at least one day a year—to celebrate and to give thanks for the goodness of God.

This is a subject we need to come back to again and again and again. I know I need it regularly, and as I mentioned yesterday, when I had the chance recently to speak to the staff of a business in our area (and they asked me to speak on the subject of gratitude), it was so helpful and recalibrating for me to go back and be reminded of the importance of gratitude.

I’ve said that gratitude is recognizing and expressing appreciation for the benefits that we have received from God and from others—looking upward and looking outward. Not just seeing and thinking about those benefits, but actually saying “thank you.” Saying thank You to God, saying thank You to others.

That’s the heart we see in Psalm 103. 

My soul, bless the LORD,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
My soul, bless the LORD,
and do not forget all his benefits.” (vv. 1–2)

What keeps us from being grateful is we forget the benefits of God, or we take them for granted, or we just assume that we’re going to have a house to live in and clothes to wear and food to eat and heat in the cold months and air conditioning in the warm months. We take those benefits for granted. But the psalmist says, “Don’t forget all His benefits!”

And not just the tangible, practical benefits. Yes, we need to give thanks for those, but don’t forget all the benefits that He has given to us for our souls, for our spirits. So he says, “He forgives all your iniquity” (v. 3). Wow, that’s a huge one! Don’t forget what it means to be forgiven of your sin! 

“He heals all your diseases” (v. 3) He is in the process of healing all that is broken and wounded and diseased in us. In this broken world, that’s a good gift. It’s one we have experienced at some measure now, but one we will fully experience in eternity!

“He redeems your life from the Pit” (v. 4). The Pit is where we deserve to be, the pit of hell. But God has redeemed our life from that Pit of destruction! 

And, “He crowns you with faithful love and compassion” (v. 4). Wow! The psalmist says, “Don’t forget his benefits—don’t forget all His benefits!” 

I’m so blessed to have had thankful, grateful people in my life. I told you about some of those yesterday. Another beautiful example of this in my life has been my precious husband, Robert. He’s a grateful man. Sometimes when he starts to point out something that’s going wrong he’ll say, “But I’m not going to complain. I want to be a grateful man.” And he is a grateful man. 

You’ve heard the story of when we walked through COVID and cancer at that same time, how during 2020 and into 2021, as Robert was going through treatments and scans and tests, one cancer after the other and then surgery and chemo treatments . . . The Lord put it on our hearts to step up our thankfulness, to step up our gratitude. We wanted to overflow with gratitude, even when we didn’t know the outcome—we didn’t know the prognosis. We’re thrilled now that Robert is in remission! It’s easy to give thanks now.

But we said, “We want to give thanks when we have bad reports,” when Robert was having those profoundly low blood counts, that anemia during all those months and felt so weak. We said, “We want to give thanks in these times as well.” When I considered that I could be a widow before the end of the year, we wanted to give thanks. 

And so, you may remember how we turned our sunroom into a “gratitude room.” For months, each night at dinner we would fill out some little, colorful Post-it notes, something or things from that day—little things, big things—that we were thankful for—good things, hard things.

We’d write them out, and then we’d put them up on the frames, the walls of that room. That became a gratitude room. Eventually, we covered the walls of that room with these gratitude notes. Every time I would walk by, when my heart was tempted to grumble about what we were going through, I would look at those Post-it notes everywhere displayed. I would say, “Oh, we have so much to be thankful for!” I would be prompted to give thanks. I eventually took those Post-it notes down and put them in a scrapbook along with all the CaringBridge updates that I posted during that time.

That scrapbook sits on the coffee table in our living room. Just walking past it is a reminder of the faithfulness of God, the benefits of God. I actually made a short video about our gratitude wall and you can find the link to that in the transcript of today’s program. 

But what a powerful time that was for us! And what a beautiful thing for me, not just in that season, but in the years Robert and I have been married, to see this man as a grateful man. 

You know, the world has been through so much—we all have—over the past few years. I think we’ve seen an increase in ingratitude with COVID, with all the political stress, the racial stress, the rise in crime rates, the rise in inflation. We’re living in an angry world, a wounded world. We’ve seen anxiety and depression spiking at record rates. There is so much fear that people are facing.

In fact, I was talking with a woman just the other day who was telling me how she has always been an anxious person. She’s a beautiful young-ish woman; she’s a professional woman. You would look at her and you would think, She has it altogether. But she poured out her heart and said, “I’m an anxious person; I’m a fearful person.”

She talked about how COVID had affected her business. She started self-medicating with alcohol. She’s become an alcoholic and is going in and out of treatment centers trying to deal with this. She says now, “It’s so hard!” Now, here’s a woman who needs Jesus!

It was a sweet opportunity for me to express compassion to her and understanding. This is a hard world we’ve living in and these are hard things, but also to share the good news that Jesus is the only One who can fill those empty places of our hearts!

 

I’ve really come to believe that a failure to give thanks is at the heart of much of the despair and the despondency that is so pervasive in our world, and even among believers today. We have this huge sense of entitlement.

I see it in young people, but I see it in older people as well. Focusing on “How much I’m owed,” versus, “How much I owe to God and others.” Focusing on, “How much I don’t have,” versus, “How much I do have!”

I watch today as we see so many threats in our economy, especially with the prices of things being inflated and the uncertainty about our economic future . . . I look at a lot of people and see that their sense of stability and well-being is tied to their portfolio. They’re keeping an eye on the stock market and when it goes up, they’re up, and when it goes down, they’re down.

Then I see other people whose security and well-being and hope are not tied to any of that. They’re tied to Christ, to His promises, to His gospel . . . and what a huge difference that makes in people’s lives!

You see, the attitude of gratitude is not tied to anything that is temporal or that can be taken away from us. Because if your hope is tied to things that can be taken away from you, you’re going to be an insecure, ungrateful person. The attitude of gratitude is independent of all that. It’s a choice. It’s a choice to live a grace-infused lifestyle.

Now, we can choose to be angry; we can choose to be depressed; we can choose to be retaliatory or vindictive toward those who have wronged us. Or, we can make the choice every day, in little things and in big things, to be grateful.

In fact, I’ve learned over the years that in every circumstance and moment of my life I can whine or I can worship. Those are my two basic responses to life. The little things I can whine about or I can worship God who is greater and bigger than all the big and little things.

Sometimes we need to be asking each other in the most loving way possible as we’re grumbling and complaining, “Are you whining or are you worshiping?” Robert’s so good for me on this, because I can have a negative default; the glass is half-empty for me a lot of times. But Robert’s so good to help pull me back to a place of gratitude.

There are untold countless blessings that flow out of gratitude, but there are also a host of sins that flow out of ingratitude. You see this in spades when you go to the Old Testament and you see the Israelites in the wilderness/

 

 God provided all that they needed—water, food, His presence, His protection, His direction—and yet over and over and over again you see the people complaining, griping, whining rather than worshiping. There’s one verse along this line that is always convicting to me when I read it. It’s in the book of Numbers, chapter 11.

The context here is the children of Israel are walking through the wilderness, God is meeting their needs, but they always find something to complain about. Often Scripture tells us what it was they complained about. In this case, it was just general complaining.

Numbers 11, verse 1:

Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship.

I don’t know what the hardship was at that moment; maybe it’s good we don’t know, because we always have some hardship that we can complain about, right? 

They didn’t just complain to themselves, they complained openly before the Lord and before each other, talking to each other: “Isn’t this horrible?! Isn’t this awful??” Well,

When the Lord heard [and remember that the Lord always does hear] his anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

Wow! How often I think, What if God would do that today when He hears us complain or murmur? He not only hears what we say, He knows what’s in our hearts. If He were to just send fire and wipe us out . . . whew!

Well, I’m so thankful that, as those who live under the New Covenant of grace, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the the wrath, the anger of God that we deserved for our complaining, our ingratitude and every other sin we’ve committed.

But this is not just an Old Testament example for those who lived back then, this is an example for us who live in the era of grace. Because Paul refers back to this whole incident in 1 Corinthians 10:10, where he says, “And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.”

Now let me just say first of all, that word “grumble” in the Greek language is a word that actually sounds like our word “murmur—“mrmurmrurmr” it just sounds like “mmrmmurmrrm.” It’s not a good thing, right? “Don’t grumble [don’t murmur] as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.”

But then Paul says, “These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction” (v. 11). We need to learn from the children of Israel. We always have more cause to worship than we do to whine.

And even in the midst of hardship, which we do face . . . We do face some hard hardships, some horrific things happening in our world and maybe to you as you’re listening to my voice today. I don’t want to minimize that at all!

The Scripture talks in the Psalms about how “weeping endures for a night.” (see Psalm 30:5). There are seasons of hardship and weeping, but God is always present, always purposeful, and always at work to accomplish His good will in us and through us through those hardships. So the instruction is, “Don’t grumble, as some of them did.”

This is an important thing that our culture needs to understand today. I really believe that much of the sin we see in our world today flows out of the lack of gratitude. We see that clearly in Romans chapter 1, which says to us, beginning in verse 20:

[God’s] invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen [they’re invisible attributes, but you can see them clearly] since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.

The Creation shows the glory of God, the goodness of God, the grace of God, His power, His divine nature, so:

As a result [Paul says], people are without excuse.

No one anywhere in the world can say, “I didn’t know anything about God. I didn’t have any opportunity to believe in Him.”

If they lift their eyes up, if they look around, if they look down they will see in Creation, everywhere, evidence of God’s power and His nature. Here’s the problem: it’s not that they didn’t know anything about God. Verse 21 of Romans 1 says:

For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.

They didn’t glorify the God they saw in Creation, and they did not show gratitude. And what happens when people fail to be thankful?The verse continues,

Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. (vv. 21–22)

I quoted a part of this to Robert as we were watching the news the other night and I was hearing the insanity, the utter foolishness, the lies coming out of people’s mouths who are spokespeople for many of the issues in our world today.

I said, “Honey, claiming to be wise they have become fools.” Then it gets worse.

[They] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. [They became idolaters.] Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. (vv. 23–24)

Doesn’t that describe what we’re seeing all around us in our world today? Unspeakable immorality, debauchery, sexual impurity, idolatry? 

Where does it start? They did not glorify the God they saw in Creation and they did not show gratitude! Listen, you and I are only ever one small step away from idolatry, immorality—the worst sins imaginable—when we stop being grateful! Gratitude, such blessings that flow out of it, and such sins that flow out of the lack of gratitude.

You’ve often heard me say that, “anything that makes me need God is a blessing!” Those hardships, those hard things, those hard places, they’re a blessing because they make me need God, and this is cause for gratitude.

All of our relationships are sweetened by gratitude. Our vertical relationship with God is sweetened by gratitude, by thankfulness, thanksgiving. Our horizontal relationships with others are sweetened by gratitude and thankfulness.

It’s true in all our relationships, it’s true in the workplace. People will enjoy working with you if you’re a thankful person, if you’re a grateful person. You enjoy working with people who are grateful in the workplace. It changes the atmosphere.

It will change the atmosphere in your marriage. Robert and I try hard to express thanksgiving and gratitude for the little things. Hardly a day passes by that Robert doesn’t thank me for making the bed. Hardly a day passes that I don’t thank him for washing the dishes at night, for taking out the trash on Tuesday mornings. He thanks me every night for making dinner.

We thank each other, we say it. We don’t want to take these things for granted, and it sweetens our marriage. And do you know what? When the little annoying things happen, which they do . . . (We both do things that I’m sure make the other roll their eyes and think inside, Why did he/she do that?) It puts it all in perspective when your focus is on the good things, in saying “thank you.”

It’s true with your children, it’s true in your family. Over this next Thanksgiving holiday, you may be with some strange family members or people who have views that are way different than yours, and you’re not looking forward to being with them. I’ll tell you, the attitude of gratitude will change the tone at that family Thanksgiving meal.

It will change the tone in our culture. What if Christians were truly grateful, thankful people? What if Christians were expressing it, expressing to neighbors and lost people and store clerks and taking time to say, “Thank you!” 

Robert and I found ourselves having a sweet opportunity to do that during the months when he was in and out of doctor appointments. It’s one thing to say thank you to the doctors and nurses, the people who are visible and the professionals.

But we took special time to stop and thank the “invisible” people—somebody cleaning the restroom at the hospital or at the doctor’s office. Someone at the front door who, during COVID, had to ask how many times a day, “Have you had a covid test? Have you been exposed recently?” They had asked those same questions to people coming in that door day after day.

How many people do you think stopped and said, “Thank you for what you’re doing to help keep us safe.” What difference could that make in our world, for us to be truly grateful people? What could it change in your world for you to be a truly grateful person?

Paul says in Colossians 2:7 that we are supposed to be “overflowing with gratitude.” Overflowing with gratitude! And it shouldn’t be hard, because the grace and mercies and riches and blessings of Christ have overflowed to us in such abundant measure!

Dannah: Thank you, Nancy. I think you’re helping us prepare not only for our Thanksgiving next week, but for giving thanks all year round! In a moment I’m going to ask you to pray for us, because we all need to grow in gratitude.

But first, I want to let our listeners know about your book Choosing Gratitude. It’s been around since 2009, but has recently been re-released. In it, Nancy goes into greater detail about the power of gratitude, about the contrast between whining and worshiping, why gratitude is so important . . . and so much more.

Also, Nancy, at the end of the book there’s a practical tool we can use to grow in gratitude. Could you tell us about that?

Nancy: Yes, Dannah. I’m so glad we included that last section of the book. It’s called Growing in Gratitude. It’s a thirty-day devotional guide, and it just helps us live out and walk out, “What does gratitude look like? What does it mean in my daily life?”

The temptation is to read a book like this or to hear a couple of programs like this and then to move on to the next thing. But if you’ll take thirty days to focus on the subject of gratitude . . . Maybe you’ll want to get the book and then you’ll want to start into this in January, to start a new year as a year of gratitude . . . or whenever you start it, it can be anytime.

But, take time each day to look at a Scripture, to ponder it, meditate on it, and then practically to think through what might it look like to live out that aspect of gratitude in your life and in your current circumstances.

Dannah: Well, right now with your donation of any amount, we’ll send you Nancy’s book Choosing Gratitude. It’s our way of saying “thank you.” We’ll also include a pack of Post-it notes that you can post on a gratitude wall of your very own, like what Nancy mentioned today. By the way, the video about the Wolgemuth’s gratitude wall is in the transcript of this program.

When you request those gifts with your donation, we’ll send you the book and the “I Choose Gratitude” sticky notes as our way of saying “thank you” so much for your support. To make a donation, go to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Thank you so much for giving! It really does mean so much to us.

Next week Nancy begins a series called “O Come! Worship and Warning in Psalm 95.”Why don’t you go ahead and prepare your heart for it by reading and meditating on Psalm 95 sometime between now and then. I hope you’ll be back Monday for Revive Our Hearts. Nancy?

Nancy: I want to pray over you just another short passage in Colossians chapter 3 as we close. This is my prayer for me and for you, for us, not only in this Thanksgiving season but every day of our lives.

So, Colossians 3, I’m beginning in verse 15:

[May] the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, [may you] do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (vv. 15–17) 

Oh Father, how we do give thanks to You! You’ve been so, so good, so faithful, so kind, so merciful! May thanksgiving, gratitude well up in our hearts and overflow the banks of our lives. May this world around us—our families, our marriages, our children, our workplaces, our churches, our communities—be infected in a good way with this attitude of gratitude as they see it in Your people and are drawn to worship the Christ who has done so much for us! We give you thanks in Jesus’ name, amen!

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to a heart overflowing with gratitude for the freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness that you have in Christ!

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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