Live exultantly!

 Thoughts on gratitude 

Psalm 9:1-2

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

The author of a devotion I recently read talked about the personal benefit of gratitude. The age old aphorism, God doesn’t need my gratitude. I need to give it, is the basic theme. So, I got to thinking how that might play out. Here are some of my random ruminations about that.  If God is all, and in all, and I am part of that existence of God, God’s community, God’s realm of existence, then it is not I alone that benefits, but other people and things in God’s realm benefit as well from my gratitude. 

In my experience, gratitude requires a humble heart. A humble heart approaches the rest of God’s realm differently than a proud or indifferent heart. A humble heart helps me understand that it’s not all about me. All of God’s realm can’t help but be symbiotic, to be built and to build upon one another.

When we give thanks with our whole heart, our gratitude isn’t confined to a “thank you” or even a song of praise. It is reflected in our way of thinking and in the ways we live among others. It impacts how we perceive the world around us. It comes from our core. Our gratitude is found not only in the words and thoughts expressed to God, but in the ways we think about and act towards others and the world around us (both physical and manufactured)

 “I will exult in you” An older definition of exult included the idea of jumping for joy, a rather radical notion for today. What if our gratitude included a life of active joy, jumping for joy through lives lived with concern and actions toward others and all of God’s creation? 

Live exultantly. Live joyfully!