Virtue: Choosing Gratitude

November 20, 2022

I have a joke for you. How do generals show their gratitude to their troops? They give tanks!

Today we’re winding up our message series on virtues. We started with honor. We learned to honor someone before they earn it. Then we talked about perseverance. We learned we’re a success when we persevere, long before we get to the reward. Our virtue today is gratitude. Gratitude is a virtue I love because it has so many benefits! Studies have found that when people practice gratitude like keeping a gratitude journal or telling their spouse why they are grateful for them, good things happen. They are happier, their blood pressure is better, they feel closer to other people. Imagine if your blood pressure medicine also made you happy! We might all want to take that pill! But we don’t have to, we have gratitude!

It’s common to think that if your life is going well, you’ll be happy. You’ll be happy if you have tragedies, and no big changes. If things are going according to plan, well you’ll be happy. And what if things are terrible: you just got diagnosed with a new disease, you have unexpectedly high medical bills, your cat is missing and hasn’t been home in a week, and your kid decided to play the drums and got a drum set. With a life like that it seems to make sense that you’ll be unhappy!

But what if that’s not true? We all thought we would be happier if we won the 2-billion-dollar lottery. But a lot of headaches would come along with being one of the wealthiest people in the world. A study found that people who win the lottery aren’t any happier after winning than they were before.

And there are plenty of people who seem to have a hard life but surprise us by being happy. When I was a kid, I had a paper route. And way back then, the paper deliverers had to knock on doors and collect money for the papers. There was one woman who lived in a little apartment. She was old, had trouble walking and was blind in one eye. She always had me come in and talked with me a while. She was very kind and made sure I got a tip. I don’t remember many of the people I collected money from. But I remember that woman who was so kind to me. You might think that she had a hard life, but she was grateful for whatever you did, and she seemed to me like the definition of happiness!

There’s something that has special power to bring happiness and blessing to us in spite of our circumstances. That something is gratitude! But what if you think you don’t have much to be grateful for? What do you do?

The apostle Paul and Silas, or Silvanus, found themselves in a circumstance where you might think they had no reason to be grateful! In Acts 16 this is Paul’s second missionary journey. He and Silas are travelling to different places, telling the good news of Jesus Christ, and healing people.

One day Paul healed a woman who was possessed by a spirit. Today we might say she had a mental illness that Paul cured. Which should be a good thing. Except she was a slave, and her owners said she couldn’t tell fortunes as well after she was healed, and they were losing money because of Paul!

Apparently, it was a crime to heal somebody! Because Paul healed the woman, Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten with rods, arrested, put into the inner cell of a jail, and chained up. Their feet were fastened to the stock.

Paul and Silas could have sat there questioning. We did what Jesus asked us to, how come all these things happen to us? They could have given in to bitterness and disappointment and all kinds of negative feelings toward God and other people. But instead, they chose to do something completely different. They chose to praise God! Acts chapter 16:25-26 says, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” A miracle happened!

It happened because Paul and Silas made a choice! They thought, even though we’re suffering, we’re injured and hurting; even though we don’t understand the situation, why we were punished for doing good; even though, we will still worship our God. We will give thanks. We will stay in an attitude of gratitude. Because of their grateful hearts, God worked a miracle and set prisoners free! A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles!

And the beautiful thing with this story also is that their decision to respond to all these trials with thanksgiving led to a miracle for themselves, but also for those around them. Paul and Silas’ chains fell off, their cell door opened. But every prisoner’s chains fell off, and every prison door was opened up. This means, when you and I choose an attitude of gratitude, it will not only affect you, but it will also affect everyone around you. Your gratitude will affect your family in a positive way. Your gratitude will affect your workplace or your school or your friends in a positive way. Your gratitude means miracles for everyone around you!

You probably know that. When you’re around someone who complains and is negative, negative, negative, it gets you down. You were doing ok, then they start ranting and raving, and it brings you down. On the other hand, if you’re around a grateful person, who sees the good everywhere, it brings you up. You have hope! You see the world in a new way. When you’re grateful, your thanksgiving is contagious and brightens the day of everyone around you. A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles for you and those around you.

Gratitude has many blessings, and one special blessing is that giving thanks to God brings you close to Him. Psalm 100 v. 4 encourages us to give thanks to God. It says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Notice it says, enter with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is how we enter God’s gates, how we enter into God’s house, and how we enter prayer with God. You know, if you want to talk with someone, have a conversation with them, it helps to be in the same place. If I’m inside, and especially now it’s winter, and Kevin is outside, it’s hard to have a conversation. The windows are closed. I could yell out the door. But we aren’t going to have a good conversation that way. You want to be in the same place.

Psalm 100 teaches us, approach God by giving thanks! Some people say, “I wish I could hear God’s voice clearer; I wish I could feel his presence a bit stronger.” But do you get close to God? Do you enter his gates with thanksgiving? Or do you enter with “HELP!” It doesn’t say we enter His gates by screaming help. You enter by giving thanks to God. And then once you’ve entered, you can say, “help” or ask for what you need.

We enter with thanksgiving, we come praising God for how good He is and all he has done! Every time you pray, give God thanks for something. Hey, I’m alive, thank you God! There is not 6 feet of snow outside of my house, thank you God and help the people in New York! I can come to you God, and you always love me, you never leave me. I thank you God! As long as God leaves you here on earth, He still has a plan to use you to touch lives for Him. It’s great to give God thanks. Let’s practice gratitude now. Tell somebody near you what you are grateful for.

My challenge for you this week, is to enter God’s gates with thanksgiving! Start a prayer by giving thanks to God.

Gratitude brings so many benefits, happiness, better health, better relationships. A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles. We aren’t grateful just when our life is going well. Gratitude is a choice, an attitude we can choose like Paul and Silas did, when we’re beaten and in jail, when life has put us through the ringer. Enter God’s presence, giving thanks. And see what miracles God will do! Amen.