21 Days To Cultivate A Grateful HeartExemplo

Day 1: We Enter His Presence with Praise

Psalm 100 tells us we are to enter His presence with thanksgiving and praise. 

Today we will start by unpacking what it means to live a grateful life. Gratitude is our greatest weapon against entitlement and complacency. Gratitude redirects our attention from our lack to His supernatural provision and blessings. 

How do we cultivate a grateful heart? Studies show that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. Will you join us in this journey? To cultivate means to foster the growth of some- thing, to improve by labor, care or study, and to make friends with someone. For the purpose of this challenge we are doing just that. We want to foster the growth of gratitude as a lifestyle, improve our ability to practice gratitude through study and understanding, and make friends with gratitude like our life depends on it. Why? Because if we can cultivate a heart of gratitude everything in our lives and the lives of those around us will shift. 

As we begin to see life and circumstances and people through different lenses, our hearts line up with the heart of our Creator. 

REFLECT: Gratitude is a condition of the heart. Let’s kick these 21 days off with a heart-check. What was the last thing you thanked God for? What’s in your heart that is blocking you from cultivating gratitude? Are you more focused on what you didn’t get rather than what has been given? 

RESPOND: Our first response to re-shape how we see the world around us will be to enter His presence with thanksgiving and praise. Grab a piece of paper, your journal or your kid’s leftover science spiral from two years ago. Where you write it doesn’t matter right now, but the discipline of writing down what you’re grateful for does. Start by writing “Five Things I’m Grateful For” at the top of your paper and write down the first five things that come to mind. They can be people, places or things. After you’ve written them down, take a minute and re-read Psalm 100. 

When you get to the part that says “give thanks to Him and praise His name” pray something like this: 

“Lord, thank you for....” (fill in your five things) 

That’s it. Sounds super simple but the power of that specific prayer you prayed has the ability to shift your mind, heart and your life. This small discipline could change the way you see God, yourself and others!