Would you listen to a Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director of Behavioural & Social Sciences and Behavioural Medicine who is also a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist Holding Bachelor (BS) in Brain Sciences and a Phd in Clinical Psychology?
Recently a great deal of research shows that ‘an attitude of gratitude’ leads to:
Better Health
Sounder Sleep
Less Anxiety & Depression
Higher long term satisfaction with life
Kinder behaviour towards others (including partners)
Less likely to turn aggressive when provoked
Robert Eamons’ study[1] showed that in only *two months* people:
Were more Optimistic
Were happier
Worked out more
Had fewer physical complaints
That, after only writing one sentence of gratitude for 5 things, *once per week!* Imagine what this simple attitude change could do to your well being & relationships?! What if both parties did the same? All of your family?!
(Studies have found that you live longer too, but let’s not get too excited!)
It is interesting that we even need this research…God told us the below over 3 thousand years ago:
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to the Most High.
Psalm 92 (NLT)Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 118 (NLT)
All through the Bible we are told to be grateful, thankful and content. Everything we have, (life included), is a gift from God that we *do not* deserve.
There is also a dire warning for those (like me) who refuse to give God thanks or worship Him. God states that people would become fools – irrational, if they refused to worship Him [2].
It is something you would think would be impossible for an ‘advanced’ society like ours with so much knowledge. Yet here we are: everywhere we look, we see irrational, illogical and downright foolish notions being not just believed, but being championed and even legislated.
No doubt you know a number of examples of this, however you likely aren’t aware of just how terminal the condition is. Even secular scholars admit that we are in a position that no culture in all of history has ever been able to recover from [3].
As the Bible says, when the light you think you have is actually darkness, that darkness will be *deep*! [4] The only cure is the Light of the world, Jesus, bringing His Light and life to dark and dead minds. When He does that, *everything* changes.
Views on life, death, ‘sin’, money, relationships, eternity: nothing is ever the same. Not because of indoctrination or rote learning or mindless repetition of (social)media or cultural opinions, but because God’s Spirit resurrects that which was dead. And then transforms what was dark and sin-drenched.
This process flies in the face of every man-made religion where the subject must *do ‘good’ deeds to earn ‘goodness’ (or some form of human utopia). Instead, it is the only Way to true Life – fully paid for by Jesus, stepping down into our realm to pay for what we never could.
And it evokes…you guessed it: unlimited thanks. Continual gratitude.
What love is this?
That the Creator would die for me?
Amazing grace – freedom and life…
#thankYouJesus
Please Lord, help us to see some of the gifts You have given us. No matter how hard, no matter how much we hurt, help us to be thankful for what You have given, how You have protected, when you have provided and while we have breath. Help us to be thankful for it is too late.
[1] Gratitude Light: Gratitude Journal
[2] Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. Romans 1:21-22 (NLT)
[3] https://wildeden.com.au/news/soul-food/2022/the-death-of-the-west-why-my-grandchildren-will-never-know-the-australia-i-love/
[4] “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:22-24 (NLT)