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An Attitude of Gratitude

An Attitude of Gratitude

It is Thanksgiving here in the United States of America again, and this affords us the opportunity to reflect on our blessings and give thanks to our Creator God.

In 2009, I wrote a blog entitled “Thankfulness and Your Health” in which I explored the research documenting the health benefits of having a thankful mindset.

Since that time, new research has confirmed the health benefits of gratitude:

  • A 2013 study found that gratitude was positively correlated with better physical and psychological health, and this positive effect on health increased with age. [1]
  • A 2013 study documented a link between the level of parents’ gratitude and the gratitude level of their children—with a greater linkage for mother-child relationship than father-child relationship. [2]
  • A 2015 study of hospital-based healthcare workers compared those who for four weeks journaled thankful work-events with those who journaled stressful work-events or didn’t journal at all. The study found that those in the thankful group had reduced stress and reduced depression scores compared to the other two groups. [3]
  • A 2016 study of 118 adults found that gratitude reduced the experience of loneliness and significantly predicted fewer physical health problems, such as sleep disturbance, headaches, respiratory infections, and gastrointestinal ailments. [4]

These benefits are likely related to the way that our thoughts, our choices in what we focus on, direct which brain circuits fire. When we focus on thankfulness, we activate the brain’s “love” circuits, which send a calming signal to the brain’s alarm system (amygdala), thereby reducing inflammation in the body. Love is calming—it casts out fear—when we are thankful.

Conversely, when we focus on negative or stressful events, we activate the brain’s alarm system, which increases fear and sends a “fight or flight” signal to our bodies, raising blood pressure, increasing heart rate, activating the immune system, and increasing inflammatory factors. If this isn’t turned off, if we stay in a state of heightened fear, these elevated inflammatory factors impair signaling between neurons, leading to fatigue, malaise, concentration and motivation problems, and sleep disturbance. Additionally, these factors cause insulin resistance, which elevate cholesterol and increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and depression.

Yes, gratitude, being thankful, is healthy for our minds, bodies, and relationships—just as God designed. So…

Psalm 136 The Remedy

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love gives life forever.

2 Give thanks to the only true God.
His love gives life forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love gives life forever.

4 to him who alone built the universe from nothing;
His love gives life forever.

5 to him who alone had the wisdom to make the heavens;
His love gives life forever.

6 to him who brought forth land from the deep waters;
His love gives life forever.

7 to him who created the great lights —
His love gives life forever.

8 the sun to rule the day,
His love gives life forever.

9 the moon and stars to rule the night;
His love gives life forever…

23 to the One who remembered us when we were helpless
His love gives life forever.

24 and freed us from our enemies,
His love gives life forever.

25 who provides food for all living things.
His love gives life forever.

26 Give thanks to the Creator God of heaven.
His love gives life forever.

If you want an attitude of gratitude, rather than mere platitude, always remember the beatitude: Happy are those who give thanks to our God of love. So give Him thanks and then give thanks to the people in your life.


[1] Hill, P., et al., Examining the pathways between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood, Personality and Individual Differences; Volume 54, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 92-96

[2] Hoy, B., et al., Links Between Parents’ and Children’s Levels of Gratitude, Life Satisfaction, and Hope, Journal of Happiness Studies: August 2013, Volume 14, Issue 4, pp 1343–1361

[3] Cheng, S. et al., Improving mental health in health care practitioners: Randomized controlled trial of a gratitude intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 83(1), Feb 2015, 177-186

[4] O’Connell, B., et al., Mediating effects of loneliness on the gratitude-health link. Personality and Individual Differences; Volume 98, August 2016, Pages 179-183

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I have been blessed by your ministry. I have experienced personally, and deeply resonate with, the God of love and the beautiful picture of God’s character that you present. I have seen your seminar series on YouTube, read ‘The Journal of the Watcher’ book, used your mobile app, and also listen/study the bible study lesson with you each week. I concur with many of the thoughts and perspectives that you share. I understand your conclusions on natural laws vs imposed law and the legal/penal substitution (incorrect diagnosis). This makes perfect sense to me.

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You have helped make sense of thirty two years of confusion. The material you freely provide reorganized so much of my life into such a beautiful pattern that has always been hinted at from within, but misguided with my training and what I was experiencing externally. My filipno parents, who were converted from Catholicism to SDA, were sincere and did their best to raise me the right way and I have deep respect for them. However, being immigrants and not understanding the language made for a difficult transition as I was growing up, which also applied to my spiritual growth as I learned the patterns of religion. I have been listening to as many bible study classes and reading blog posts as my time in a work truck will allow, searching for the practical applications of where spirituality and reality meet, and I thank you for helping me find that. You have helped me reach a point in which I can truly say that I love God, that I believe He loves me, and, like David, I delight in His law. God bless.

Emmanuel V., Calgary, AB Canada

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I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

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God lead me to your book “The God-Shaped Brain” while I was searching for another book about the brain and then to your interview about your book on HeartWise Ministries [where] I found out about [Come And Reason Ministries]. I’m now devouring the webcasts of your Bible studies. I have been so greatly blessed and I thank God so much for your courage to speak the Truth in love no matter what. Listening to you contrast the two opposing systems (laws) and digging deep to unearth the hidden treasures in the Bible makes me so incredibly happy and I feel very blessed to be part of your Bible Study Group although I live far away. I am just so excited that there is a group of people that is spreading the Truth about the character of God and it saddens me how few realize what our Father in Heaven is really like.

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Just watched watched lesson 10 in the 1st quarter 2021 bible study classs on Isaiah. I want to thank you for your intellectual spirituality; it’s not an oxymoron! From the point of view of a teacher I also enjoy seeing how much personal pleasure you clearly take in not just tasting, but feasting on God’s word – it reminds me of Jeremiah not being able to hold it in! It makes me smile that your cup is so full and overflowing that you make it to Tuesday’s lesson (on a good day). It just goes to show the richness of God’s Word.

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