8 Ingredients for a Thankful Heart
Do you have favorite recipes? I sure do. Whether it’s our favorite foods or trying something new, recipes assist in the desired result. And it’s fascinating how all the specific ingredients work together to make a tasty food.
Every Thanksgiving, I gather the ingredients and follow a special recipe to make my Grandmother Clarkston’s lemon pie.
Yum! It’s my favorite dessert of all time! With our thankful holiday just around the corner, this mouth-watering pie is a must have for me.
Recipe Measures and Ingredients
Recipes always call for measurements—a cup of this or a tablespoon of that. Likewise, we often make other measures in life.
In the last few years, we experienced the pandemic and other life-altering events. So now, more than ever before, putting the right measures in place help stir up a thankful heart.
Stirring up a Thankful Heart
But where do we find the recipe for a thankful heart? What ingredients work together to make a heart full of thanksgiving?
A real thankful heart never comes easy. Because we don’t have to look far to see devastation, need, loss, hurt, lack and hopelessness.
You see, these factors only affect our heart if we allow it. We decide whether our hearts turn hard toward God or thankful.
Our circumstances never dictate true thankfulness in our heart.
Our circumstances never dictate true thankfulness in our heart. Click To TweetSo here are eight ingredients to stir up a T-H-A-N-K-F-U-L heart.
Thankful Heart Ingredients
T – Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
The first bite of lemon pie always reminds me of its goodness. Similarly, God reminds us over and over He’s a good, good Father. God alone is reason enough to give thanks.
H – Help others. (Philippians 2:4, Matthew 25:42-44)
Kingdom principles rarely make sense to our limited minds. When we look to the interests and needs of others; and when we help the least of these, it grows a thankful heart.
A – Accelerate praise and giving thanks to the Lord. (Psalm 7:17, Psalm 69:30)
As our voice sings praises and gives thanks, and raises Hallelujahs!, our heart naturally overflows with thankfulness. Praise + giving thanks = a thankful heart.
N – Nourish our soul. (Isaiah 55:1-3, John 6:35)
Holidays and special occasions find most of us nourishing our body with nutrients and vitamins (and other stuff we won’t mention here). But replenishing our soul with spiritual nourishment brings spiritual vitality and life! We go to the bread of life, Jesus, to satisfy our hunger and thirst.
God alone is reason enough to give thanks. Click To TweetK – Keep the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)
Like straying from a recipe botches the dish, straying from the foundations of our faith leaves us open to worldly perspectives and a less than whole heart devoted to God.
More Ingredients
F – Form an attitude of gratitude. (1 Timothy 4:4, Hebrews 12:28)
An attitude makes all the difference. Forming a specific one doesn’t happen overnight. Hebrews 12:28 encourages us to “be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” (ESV) And 1 Timothy 4:4 says, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” (ESV)
Attitudes of gratitude connect thanksgiving to our heart.
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” (1 Timothy 4:4, ESV) Attitudes of gratitude connect thanksgiving to our heart. Click To TweetU – Understand God’s blessings. (Ephesians 1:3)
We’ve heard it said to count our blessings. And we know we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. While it’s not an exhaustive list, these include: amazing grace, never-ending mercy, unconditional and undying love, unsurpassed peace, real hope, authentic faith, unwavering truth, overflowing joy and God’s fullness for our emptiness.
L – Lay up treasures in heaven. (Matthew 6:19-21)
Many of us lost earthly treasures over the last few years. Perhaps income, home, retirement, investments, insurance, or other.
One sure-fire way to cook up a thankful heart? Lay up treasures in heaven. A place treasure is never destroyed or stolen.
What’s one of your favorite food dishes at Thanksgiving? Which of the ingredients for a thankful heart speaks the most to you?
Featured images from Autumn at The Island, Pigeon Forge, TN. Friday’s Forever YouTube Channel.
An article from the past, Grateful Gobbling: Finding God in Thanksgiving.
Sometimes I participate in these link-ups:
Legacy Linkup/Inspire Me Monday/Tell His Story/Recharge Wednesday/Let’s Have Coffee/Tune in Thursday/Embracing the Unexpected (Grace & Truth).
© 2022 by Karen Friday, All rights reserved
Amen. Give thanks with a grateful heart. 🙂
God alone is reason enough to give thanks.
Love how you use acrostics as memory joggers for these truths!
Thanks, Ava. They really help me.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, these are great reminders, Karen, of why we should have hearts full of thanks always! My favorite? Dressing with gravy! Yum!
Blessings!
Martha, I love dressing with gravy too! Double Yum! Happy Thanksgiving to you and Danny and your entire family!
Thanks for these reminders, Karen. They’re pertinent now but relevant all year ’round. Thanks and God bless!
Yes, Nancy, I think the “all year round” part is what we sometimes forget.
A needed reminder. We all have so much to be thankful for, even if we’re in a time of hardship. The Lord is with us. Jesus came to pay for our sins. We can easily become part of God’s family by praying to receive Christ as Savior. The Holy Spirit is then with us forever, never leaving nor forsaking, the Trinity at work within us. Without these truths in place, I would be totally lost. I’m sure that is true of you as well.
It’s absolutely true for me too, Melinda. Those truths and foundations of our faith are the biggest reason to give thanks with a grateful heart to the Almighty.
Karen, thank you so much for sharing your blessings with us. Your stories mean so much to me. My husband and I watch you both on YouTube Fridays Forever. Your stories and Godly words have helped me so much. God is so good and your words just inspire me to love him even more. My husband who was health as a horse had two strokes on July 4th. They hit him in his sleep and caused him to fall out of bed, it woke me up. If he hadn’t of fallen out of bed and woke me up he probably wouldn’t be with us today. By the grace and merceries from God he is recovering slow but well. I could go on and on about it. Bottom line is that I am so thankful and we feel very blessed. God is so good to us we don’t deserve it but I am glad he is our father and loves us unconditionally. Thank you for what you do, and God bless you!
Wow, Mary Jane, so grateful for how the Lord worked in what happened to your husband and that he is doing well. I pray his recovery continues to go well. Your comments are always so kind and encouraging. And we are thankful you and your husband are a part of our YouTube community. That means a lot. I pray you and your family have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” (1 Timothy 4:4, ESV)
Always enjoy your acrostics Ms. Karen, and this one is an especially important one. On my family’s Daily Prayer List, the very first thing on the list is “Thank God for all He is and all He does”. We sometimes want to “rush through” our prayers or we think that our prayers are a “wish list” of our (often selfish) desires. Your through-provoking ideas actually invite us to slow down and spend time both praising and listening for God in our prayer lives. I dug out an old copy of “30 Thankful Prayers” from Navigators recently and a making time in devotion time each morning to consider why I should be so thankful that God is in my life. Great post ma’am.
That is great, J.D. A devotional like that helps us stay mindful of all the reasons we cultivate a grateful heart. Because who God is and what He does can never be separated, they are one and the same. I hope you and Mrs. Diane have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!
I love your ingredients for a thankful heart. You are so right, “God is enough reason.” I featured your post on my Grace & Truth Pinterest board. Thank you for being a part of our link-up. Maree
Maree Dee, I always appreciate you sharing my blog articles and love being connected to Grace & Trueh linkup! I pray you and your family have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Amen. I am so thankful for everything God does in my life.
Yvonne, I try to remind myself to be thankful for what God has done and will do!
Amen! Even when we’re having a “bad” day, it’s still a good day in the big picture. We are God’s children. Now let’s go and spread the Good News so all can sh are in this! xoxoxo
Agree, Jessica, and the Lord always sees the big picture and works behind the scenes on our behalf. We have so much to be thankful and grateful for.
Karen, this is a beautiful message. Thank you for sharing these reminders and encouragement.
Visiting today from IMM
Paula, glad this encouraged you. Happy Thanksgiving.
I love your recipe for a thankful heart Karen! Cultivating gratitude takes intention and I appreciate your encouragement to us today!
Thanks so much, Donna. I pray to cook up a real thankful heart all year long.
We all have so much to be grateful for. Even in times of great sorrow, we can still look around us and see blessings that coexist alongside our pains.
I like how you said, “see blessings that coexist alongside our pains.” Yes, our blessings are always around and carry us through.
I like the acrostic as a memory tool, and we do have so many reasons to be thankful! No matter what, God is good, and his love is reason enough to have a grateful heart. Visiting from IMM#17
Thanks for visiting today, Kym. God himself is reason alone to give thanks. God bless.
[…] spent the last few weeks on thankful hearts and giving thanks for our spiritual blessings in Christ. But since I enjoy praying specific Bible […]