Joyce Meyer - The Power of Thank You: Discover the Joy of Gratitude

I am excited about writing on the subject of thankfulness because I think having a grateful heart has more power than we can imagine. Being thankful is obviously important because Gods Word is filled with instructions and reminders to give thanks and be thankful. The words thanks and thanksgiving appear in approximately one hundred verses in the Bible, and we are told to give thanks seventy-three times. I believe that anything the Holy Spirit repeats that often must be important to my life and yours.

We are to have thankful hearts and express our thankfulness to God and to the people in our lives who help us, encourage us, and do things for us. Psalm 100:4 states that we should be thankful and say so ( AMPC ). I like this scripture because it reminds me that people cant read my mind. They need me to communicate my gratitude in order to know that I appreciate them and am thankful for them.

As we read the Old Testament, we find that possibly the Israelites biggest problem may have been that they initially gave thanks for Gods goodness to them but quickly forgot Him and went back to complaining and disobedience. Over and over God forgave them when they repented, and then they repeated the same process of being thankful, forgetting God, and going back into bondage. When God did mighty works for the Israelites, Psalm 106:1213 says, They believed his promises and sang his praise. But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

God brought thousands of people out of bondage in Egypt, and they headed toward the Promised Land. One reason only two men out of that large groupJoshua and Calebactually entered the Promised Land was that so many of the others complained instead of being thankful. Some of those born in the wilderness did enter into the Promised Land with Joshua and Caleb, but the rest were destroyed, partially due to a lack of gratitude, which led to disobedience to God. This shows the power of thank you.

The apostle Paul teaches us that Gods will for us is to be thankful at all times in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). I admit that this is a tall order, but God never asks us to do anything we cannot do with His help.

My goal in this book is to birth in you a fresh revelation of the power of being thankful and urge you to make a new and firm commitment to being more thankful than you have ever been. I truly believe that the words thank you contain power that will change your life. I have concentrated on being thankful for a long time, and I can testify that thankfulness releases joy in our lives, has a powerful effect on our prayers, and keeps us focused on the positive aspects of our lives.

Our gratitude belongs first to God, because without Him we would have nothing. God is good. Goodness is part of His character and essence, and He is good all the time. He desires our good and wants us to be good to others. Where goodness flows forth, thankfulness should also flow forth. When we stop seeing the good in our lives and start complaining, we cause many problems for ourselves. I like to say, Why be grumpy when we can be grateful?

I look forward to hearing about how this book helps you become a more thankful person. I am thankful that you are reading it and thankful that God has allowed me to write it. I begin it leaning entirely on Him for the words He wants to speak to you through it.