2 Cor 12 “How to have an Attitude of Gratitude”

Have you ever given but did not receive even a thank you in return? The Corinthians needed an attitude adjustment and sometimes we do as well. Paul had given and given and given and yet this is how he felt in his heart:

“Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”

In other words, Paul was saying I have bent over backwards to spend for you and yet this is how you treat me, you love me less! His heart was hurt and perhaps you can relate. You give and give and yet the person(s) do not return in like manner their gratefulness for what you have willingly and perhaps sacrificially given. We all, at times, behave in this way. We too need an attitude adjustment to see life through the lens of gratefulness.

Cultivating gratefulness or gratitude begins in the heart when we ponder how much God has given for us. Instead of the “o woe is me” attitude we need to plant seeds of gratefulness and cultivate them. Then let the Fruit of the Spirit pour forth from you. We need to take our focus off of self and pour it out upon others ….EVEN if we get nothing in return!

The hymn writer was right: Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and you will see what God has done.  For what are you grateful today?