The Power of Thanksgivingਨਮੂਨਾ

Gratitude is a weapon

• While most people agree that gratefulness is good manners and that they would like those around them to be grateful, we still sell it short. Gratefulness is a weapon. It's a weapon that fights depression, anxiety, entitlement, pride, and selfishness. It's a weapon that brings strength even in trials. People often miss the power of gratitude because they don’t see a blade, expulsion, or flying projectile. But the greatest fights that we fight aren’t the ones happening on the outside but the ones on the inside. When the inside is strong, we can face the greatest adversity on the outside, but when the inside is in distress, then we can fall to anything on the outside.
• The Bible says that our fight isn't against flesh and blood, and our weapons aren’t of the flesh but have divine power.

People around the world are trying to fight the internal fight with everything they have, but many are unaware of the weapons that God has given them. In 2024, the antidepressant drug market was valued at $ 18.7 billion USD. According to the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, “Depression costs U.S. employers approximately $187.8 billion a year." That is a high cost, and a lot of people are trying to fight it.

Nehemiah 8:10 ESV tells us that, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” While many agree with Nehemiah, they don’t know how to have joy. First, there is joy in His presence, according to Psalm 16:11 ESV. Psalm 100:4 ESV says that we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Let's look at Proverbs 15:15 ESV: All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. I looked at a few translations of this verse and saw the word oppressed, translated as oppressed, the afflicted, and needy. They said their days were bad, evil, miserable, or troubled. While the cheerful was translated as cheerful, happy, good, one who has a cheerful heart. Let me paraphrase this verse for you. All the days of the victim mindset are miserable, but the grateful heart has a continual feast.

There is both a natural and a physical side to the weapon that we have been given. In the natural realm, giving thanks activates the hypothalamus gland with downstream effects on metabolism, stress, and various behaviors. The hypothalamus is located at the base of the brain and regulates hormones responsible for many critical functions, such as body temperature, emotional responses, and survival functions like appetite and sleep. One of the neurochemicals associated with the parts of the brain affected by gratitude is Dopamine, a pleasure hormone.

Serotonin and Dopamine are recognized as happy hormones. Depression has been linked to a lack or low levels of them. Many antidepressants often work to bring up these levels by one means or another. But we often forget what was supposed to activate these circuits to start with.

It is difficult for our brains to focus on both positive and negative stimuli simultaneously. When we choose gratitude, our mind and focus fill with it. This sets in motion the cycle, as our mind looks to confirm what it believes, it looks for more. As we look for more to be thankful for, we find more of it. Giving thanks seeds our future with hope, as we talked about the other day.

Gratitude fights pride, anxiety, and entitlement, too. A spoiled person doesn’t happen at a specified net worth. Many of us have seen a child spoiled. It goes far beyond what possessions they have. It’s a selfish attitude of entitlement that afflicts poor and rich alike. Gratitude breaks entitlement; it recognizes another as the source. Pride says it's all about me, pride says I have achieved, pride is self-focused, while gratitude says it's not all about me. God gave the Israelites instructions to remember that it's God who gives us the ability and power for even what we achieve. When we see that it isn’t our own strength, it begins to uproot pride. It also allows us to cast our cares on Him.

Today let's intentionally use the weapon of gratitude in all that we face.