The Power of Thanksgivingಮಾದರಿ

The Gratitude Killers

As mighty as gratitude is, there are enemies of gratitude. As logical as it would be, the enemies of gratitude aren’t circumstances. It's not the storms of life that rob people of gratitude. I have had the honor of traveling to a lot of different countries, and people’s gratitude isn’t a reflection of what they have or what they are going through. The enemies of gratitude aren’t external; the enemies of gratitude come from within. One of the great enemies of gratitude is comparison.

While that might not be a shock to many people, it has a larger effect than most people realize.

Jesus shared a story in Matthew 20 that will help us. At 6 am, a man goes out and hires workers to work in his vineyard for the day. He offers to pay them a denarius for the day. This was the going rate for a laborer's day of work. They agree and get to work. At 9 am, the master finds more workers to hire and sends them out to the field, promising to pay them what is right. He does this again at noon, 3 pm, and finally at 5 pm. At 6 pm, he calls all the workers in and begins to pay them, starting with those who were hired at 5 pm. He paid them each a denarius. When the workers who started first received their pay, they began to complain. The master points out that they got what they had happily agreed to receive. But they complained, saying he paid those who only worked an hour the same. He asks why they are upset over his generosity.

This made me think. Had he not hired other workers, or if he had paid the other workers less, they would have been happy with what they received. It wasn’t a problem with the amount of money; it was about how they compared. As they compared, they were no longer happy with what they received. Many times, we lose our gratitude not because of what we have but because of what others have. Our phones are fine until we see our friend's new phone. Our house was great until you visited that friend's big house, see their bigger TV….

Social media has added to this as we see others' highlights or staged lives. We can become discontent with our own. When we spend our lives in comparison, it will rob us of joy.

People are spending billions to make you unhappy. Actually, in 2024, global advertising spending surpassed $1 trillion. That is a lot of money to get you to be unhappy with what you have. Simple marketing is to create a need and sell the answer. They create a need by trying to make people ungrateful for what they have, with the solution being their product. Getting the newest, best things never lasts.

Joy is not getting what you want, it's being thankful for what you have, who you have, or Whose you are.

We often lay aside all the blessings we do have because of the one thing we are thinking about that we don’t have. No matter what you have, there is always something you don’t have. If you are waiting to possess what you don’t have in order to be thankful, you will always be waiting and never be grateful.

Chasing fulfillment externally never lasts. Gratefulness flows from the heart. It doesn’t grow from circumstances. Which is good because it means we can continue to have gratitude in hard times.

Thankfulness has to be cultivated by choosing to give thanks for what we do have rather than looking at what others have that we don’t. What is something that you wished for, waited for, saved for, or prayed for that you have taken for granted? Take a minute today to thank the Lord for it.