Gratitude

To give thanks to God is to acknowledge His greatness and power in our lives.  Gratitude is an act of humility by which we praise God for the ways in which He has worked in our lives, thanking Him for His greatness, His love, and His kindnesses to us. When we thank God, we demonstrate that we love Him more than anyone or anything in our lives.  Thanking God helps us to recognize our finite natures and reminds us that He, the Great I AM, is above all else. 
   
When we thank God, we remind ourselves that we are His creatures, His creations.  We grow in the virtue of humility, and we align ourselves more closely with the Will of God.  We use our gift of free will, to acknowledge that God is our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Enabler.  We give ourselves over to the Triune God, and we allow  Him to work in our souls, molding and changing us into His likeness.  Even in dire circumstances, when we focus on the Lord knowing that, no matter what happens, He is with us, we acknowledge that God is our Creator and that without Him, our lives would lack meaning and virtue. 
   
Paul reminds us to “pray without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  (1 Thessalonians 5: 17-18)  To pray without ceasing means to offer our lives to Him so that each act, each thought, each word becomes a prayer.  Let us offer our lives in thanksgiving so that we might praise Him and thank Him endlessly.