The fruit of a heart of thanksgiving is prayer, joy, strength, and victory. We must always give thanks to God. 1 Timothy 2:1 exhorts us to give thanks for all men. We must approach every situation as a chance to serve God and give Him thanks for all situations.
There are 3 enemies in our lives: Satan, this world, and ourselves. God wants to use every different situation in our lives to help us overcome these 3 enemies, so thank God for every situation (as He commands in 1 Thessalonians 5:18).
A negative heart and attitude destroys faith; it will eventually destroy you. Faith comes when we fill our hearts with thanksgiving. We will eat the good fruit of a thankful heart.
How do we make our hearts thankful? We must train ourselves to be thankful. Also, through prayer. In Philippians 4:14-20, we see that Paul had a deep love and intimate relationship with the Philippians because he prayed for them with tears. He gave everything to them. He spoke the truth to them.
A heart of thanksgiving causes us to grow in the Lord and brings positive change into our lives. Our lives are continually changing, either in a positive or a negative way. Make sure that the change in your life is positive by maintaining a heart attitude of thanksgiving. Then, in any situation, whether you see it as “good” or “bad”, God will be able to bring positive change.
When you give thanks to God, He will have fellowship with you (Phil 4:14-20). You will bear good fruit (Phil 4:17). God will prosper you and fill your life with abundance (Psalm 50:23). You will glorify God and know His purpose and plan in your life. You will know who you are in the Lord and be filled with faith.
None of your prayers are wasted. None of your giving is wasted. Have a heart of thanksgiving and every seed that you plant into the kingdom of God will be fruit into your life.
God bless you!
Pastor Sun East
I love your posts Pastor Sun Hui East! That is so very true about our enemies, that the greatest one is actually ourselves. How frightening to realize this. I really need to change my heart
Lord, give me a grateful heart! I see myself as a grateful person until I read the Lord’s definition of it… thank you for this post Pastor Sun Hui East.
that is me exactly
The power of gratitude can not be overestimated. I see that in the lives of my children… after returning from a mission trip, my oldest son (young teen) changed his attitude from his former, entitled way. The year before we went he was always focused on himself. He is smart, and he knew how to “look good” at church and in front of his dad and I, but he was actually, completely self absorbed! He came to this realization when we returned (he had seen poverty and disease in thousands of kids his age). He actually cried in front of our congregation telling about the mission trip and admitted how hard his heart had become…
I have also seen a change in both of my children since they have returned from mission trips. I can not encourage parents enough to push your children to serve God during the years that you have influence in their lives.
I do want fellowship with God. Thank you Pator Sun Hui East for this post.
This is definitely the time of year that we are more likely to be thinking of what we are grateful for… so this message is timely! If we did have a heart of thanksgiving all year, we would have much more joy! I appreciate you mentioning this Bible passage Pastor Sun Hui East.
This message was very important to me today, thank you for posting Pastor Sun Hui East. I needed to hear that none of our prayers or giving has been wasted, sometimes I grieve about that.
With Thanksgiving just behind us, I can see how important it is to stay in that grateful and Godly state of mind. Good Post Pastor Sun Hui East, thank you!
Powerful message by Pastor Sun.
I need to have a greatful heart.
Yes, gratitude is the key, isn’t it, praise the Lord for good teaching! Nice post Pastor Sun Hui East! I am attaching your blog to my Facebook page each week as you post!
I need to have a thankful heart, that is the key to get along with my loved ones. Thank you Pastor Sun Hui East for your helpful teachings.