The Power of a Grateful Heart

Our November theme for the Today devotions, written by my colleague Rev. Sergei Sosedkin, is “The Power of a Grateful Heart.”

Are you a grateful person? Am I a grateful person? In order to answer, I have to look back at my life and truly count my blessings. I give thanks for many things--to name just a few:

• I was raised in a Christian home where my parents loved me and where God’s name was honored and revered.

• I have a wonderful spouse and three children who love the Lord and who help to make our family a place of comfortable security in each other’s love and God’s love.

• I have a job that enables me to share my love of Jesus Christ and help others to get to know him better.

• I have my health—and my eyesight! I have struggled most of the past year with vision issues and have had many surgeries to correct those issues. God has brought me through those challenges, and restored my eyesight.

I could go on and on stating my reasons for gratitude. Making a list like this is a good exercise for all of us.

Yet I know too that there are times when I fail to be thankful. I do not always show or share my gratitude to God with others, or I grumble and complain when things don’t seem to go my way. And sometimes there are deep and hurtful losses in life. Sometimes we bring laments to God. Yet even then, we do so because God is paying attention to us--his providence and blessings continue even in the valley of shadows.

Rev. Sergei Sosedkin explores our gratitude for those blessings this month. He shares his reasons for giving thanks, and especially highlights what the Bible has to say about gratitude.

Whether you look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday or have already celebrated, it’s important to remember that every day should be a day of giving thanks!

God has given us so much, and an important part of our Christian daily walk should be an expression of our gratitude to God—and sharing it with others.

If you want to hear more of Rev. Sosedkin’s thoughts as he wrote these devotions, please listen to his audio interview, linked below.

Who Wrote it? Reverend Sergei Sosedkin on "The Power of a Grateful Heart"