Discipline of Gratitude

Happy Sunday. As we begin today, let me read you this story from Luke chapter 17. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, 10 men with leprosy approached him.

Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priest." And as they went, they were made clean. And then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, he prostrated himself at Jesus's feet and thanked him.

He was a Samaritan. And then Jesus asked, "Were not 10 made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this one?"

What discipline did the other nine lack? As we talk about spiritual disciplines. Today we're going to talk about the discipline of gratitude. And yes, it is a discipline.

To some, gratitude is something to focus on at the end of November, Thanksgiving Day. and then back to normal. Gratitude for a believer should be part of our every day. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 teaches us this.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Sadly, too many believers ignore these words. They're not disciplined enough to show gratitude, to thank God. Spiritual disciplines make us intentional, deliberate in all circumstances.

Research has shown that practicing gratitude will boost our immune system. It will help lower stress. It will fight depression. It increases energy.

It even helps us sleep better at night. Studies show there are videos online of children putting glasses on for the very first time. Have you seen those? And the look on their faces is priceless once they can see correctly.

Gratitude does the same to us. We are able to see God's blessings as opposed to missing them altogether. And through the lens of gratitude, our relationships become better. Our attitudes improve.

Brother David Rast, a Benedicting monk, said this. He said, "It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy." I like that.

Gratefulness makes us happy. I don't think of myself as ungrateful. My prayer life should be more in thanking God. I admit that.

And honestly, there are times when I do take things for granted. I was in a Chinese restaurant a few years back and the waitress hostess was Chinese. I imagine she knew very little English. What to drink was in her vocabulary.

The other words in her broken English arsenal that I heard her speak were what got my attention. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's what she would say.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I bet she said that two or three dozen times just to me. And she smiled as she said it.

I sat down. She thanked me. I stood up. She thanked me.

I got a real refill. She thanked me. I got a clean plate. She thanked me.

Whatever I did, thank you. Thank you so much. I could have said, "This is the worst food I've ever eaten." And she would have responded, "Thank you.

Thank you so much." God spoke to me that day and said, "Hey, knucklehead, you need to be thankful always." That's God's will for our lives, being thankful. Have you ever done something for someone and they didn't say thank you?

Maybe you held a door open for a stranger or you sent a gift to someone for a graduation or a wedding and you were never thanked. Thank you notes seem to be fewer and fewer in our present day. In the story that we began with, 10 were healed and only one said thank you to the healer. What Jesus said bothered me.

Were not 10 made clean? So, where are the other nine? H the percentages aren't good, are they? One out of 10 said thanks.

Saying thank you is a discipline. Having a grateful heart is a spiritual discipline. Many years ago, a pastor named Willie Stiger was reflecting on one of his favorite school teachers. She taught English literature, and Pastor Stiger credited her with his love of reading and writing.

Many years after he was her student, he found her address and sent her a note thanking her for a job well done. Not long after sending his note, he received a reply in very shaky handwriting. It said, "My dear William, I'm now an old lady in my 80s living alone in a small room. The days here are long and lonely."

You'll be interested to know, William, that I taught school for 50 years, and in all that time, yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a cold morning, and it cheered my lonely old heart as nothing has cheered me in many years. Gratitude has been called the gateway spiritual discipline. Gratitude changes everything it touches.

Psalms 104 says, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name." Now, that's a great place to start.

God does not need more ungrateful children. He doesn't need the nine. He needs the one. We should be most grateful to God and then to others.

Maybe today is a good day for you to change your prayer life. Maybe today's a good day to order some thank you notes and to spread some joy to people who have blessed your life. Are you disciplined enough to do that? Pray with me.

Father, we know what to do. We know that we should be thankful people. We should show gratitude first and foremost to you. So help our prayer lives to reflect that as we just look around and see how blessed we are.

And then, Father, help us to show gratitude to the people in our houses, to our spouses, our parents, our children. Help us show gratitude at work, in our neighborhoods, to the folks that we encounter daily. Help them to see that there's something different about us because you are with us always. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. God bless. Thanks for joining me today. Have a great great week.