A THANKFUL HEART CANNOT ALSO BE CYNICAL

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.” (EPHESIANS 5:20)

Let me recommend the cultivation of the habit of thankfulness as an effective cure for the cynical, sour habits of fault-finding among Christian believers.

 

Thanksgiving has great curative power. The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many religious persons. A thankful heart cannot be cynical!

 

Please be aware that I am not recommending any of the “applied psychology” nostrums so popular in liberal circles. We who have been introduced to God through the miracle of the new birth realize that there is good scriptural authority for the cultivation of gratitude as a cure for spiritual sourness. Further, experience teaches us that it works!

 

We should never take any blessing for granted but accept everything as a gift from the Father of Lights. We should write on a tablet, one by one, the things for which we are grateful to God and to our fellow men.

 

Personally, I have gotten great help from the practice of talking over with God the many kindnesses I have received. I like to begin with thanking Him for His thoughts of me back to creation; for giving His Son to die for me when I was still a sinner; for giving the Bible and His blessed Spirit who inwardly gives us understanding of it. I thank Him for my parents, teachers, statesmen, patriots.

 

I am grateful to God for all of these and more—and I shall not let God forget that I am!

 W. Tozer