Giving thanks not only redirects our attention to God. It can also be an act of spiritual opposition, a form of spiritual warfare.
Why? Because an attitude of thankfulness resists the tendency of the world around us to cloak everything in negativity, enabling us to resist the pessimism that pervades the airwaves and dominates political discourse. It also helps us to reject the ever-present temptation to think that God doesn't really care about us.
Making thankfulness a habit inevitably affects our relationships because we begin to perceive others as among the biggest blessings we count. People who love us, who forgive us, who listen to us, who teach us, who pray for us, and who hold our hands when we need them to: all are expressions of God's care for us and all are to be thanked.
A reader did this for me recently. He began by explaining that God was opening his eyes to everyday blessings. In that spirit, he wanted to tell me that he had been helped by one of my books. Then he offered a specific Scripture passage as an encouragement for my personal and professional life. His words and the passage he shared were right on the mark, though he couldn't have known it. It was a timely encouragement, an expression of thanks that might not have been given had God not been teaching him about gratitude.
Gratitude is expansive. It gives us a "bigger God" by enlarging our picture of his character. We realize that he is not limited in the ways he can work in us and through us. It also makes us "bigger people" by enabling us to reflect God generosity to the world around us. As Eugene Peterson's wonderful version of the Bible puts it:
"The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller" (Proverbs 11:24 MSG).
If you want to experience the peace God promises, remember that gratitude can affect your life in the same way that compound interest affects your investments. Learning to be thankful regardless of circumstances will yield a larger, richer life, one that is securely grounded in God's goodness.
