Give Thanks, O My Soul by Alyssa U.

Hello! I am so thrilled to be able to write this! I love writing blog posts but college makes it hard to find the time. I hope you feel encouraged by the end of this and learn a little something along the way. We have just finished up holy week. Wow, what a week to reflect on what Jesus did for us. After a fun-filled weekend celebrating the resurrection, I decided to go on a walk to express my gratitude to the Lord. I love to talk to Jesus and I just had a tug on my heart to say thank you. I think sometimes we get bogged down in the craziness of life that we truly forget to express our gratitude. I don’t just mean a quick “thank you lord for xy and z” but a deep appreciation for the life you are allowed to even live because of Jesus. I am in such awe of the fact that Jesus SAW our sin before we even sinned but still decided to become our sin and then be the ultimate sacrifice. We not only have His sacrifice to be thankful for but everything that has happened since then in our own personal lives and the world around us.

This past year I have tried to put in to practice saying thank you more often. For little things like getting to class on time but also for the medium and big things that happen throughout the day. The reality is, we deserve nothing but death, but we are given life (to the fullest!!!). That is something to be grateful for, so how can we not express that gratitude. Saying a quick prayer of thanks every time something happens for our benefit happens is so powerful. Because when we say thank you in the good, we are more inclined to say thank you in the not-so-good. Creating a habit in the good produces an easier response in the bad to say thank you to God even though you may struggling right now. It’s okay to feel negative emotions but that does not mean we can negate the gratitude in our hearts for the life we are able to live. Life is too heavy to not bask in the little victories that we even get to say thank you for!

If you have never heard the song “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake, I would give it a listen! The song is expressing our inability to fully say thank you for all the Lord has done for us, but we can lift our hallelujah to him in gratitude. The lord is so deserving of our gratitude, and I just wanted this to be a reminder to express our thanks to Him. We are going to fall short but creating a habit of gratitude will go a long way. God is so good, and if you are a child of God you have EVERY reason to be grateful.

This is just a little bit of what has been on my heart lately. I hope you will apply expressing gratitude this week so that you can fully reap the benefits of God’s goodness. This world is dark and full of evil but by having a grateful posture we can live in the joy of the Lord!! I pray you have the best week full of gratitude!

Thank you for reading! ~Alyssa<3

PS: Some verses about gratitude to help us further understand!

Psalm 7:17

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;

I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.

Psalm 9:1

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

Colossians 2:6-7

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.