Do you know what the Bible says about gratitude?

It is fairly common knowledge that gratitude and thankfulness are beneficial to our health physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Grateful people are overall happier and more joyful. Cultivating gratitude in your life leads to being more generous, energized, empathetic, and resilient. This is due to gratefulness shifting our focus to all that we do have instead of what we don’t have.

Trading pity or worry for gratefulness can combat stress, anxiety, depression, comparison, isolation and can even improve your sleep. There are a lot of ways to get gratitude into your daily life. My personal favorites are journaling and memorizing Scriptures about thankfulness or God’s goodness.

Choosing what to be thankful for doesn’t have to be complicated. Many times my gratefulness comes from simple things, like a warm cup of coffee, my adorable cat, having clean drinking water, being able-bodied, not being chronically or seriously ill or the fact that I have 2 running cars (barely, but they are).

If we simply shift our eyes to what is right in front of us, we’ll often find we have plenty to be thankful for.

What does Scripture tell us about gratitude?

All throughout scripture, there are verses that tell stories of people giving thanks to God. While the Bible holds a lot of teaching and examples of gratefulness, it also points us to all the reasons we can give thanks, even in hard seasons.

Most importantly, we have Jesus and that is always something to be thankful for.

So, here are 15 Bible verses to remind you of God’s goodness and help you cultivate a grateful heart.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

This verse was so eye-opening to me when I read it the first time. Choosing gratefulness isn’t just beneficial or a good choice, it is God’s Will for us that we give thanks in all circumstances. Even the bad ones.

Practicing gratitude isn’t just a trendy activity or a worldly way to combat anxiety and depression. It is a spiritual discipline. The more we do it when things are good, the easier it will be to be grateful in hard times.

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This verse embodies gratitude in it’s purest form. Whatever we do in this life, we do unto the Lord. Have you ever gone to do something you were dreading? Did complaining about it make it better? Probably not.

But gratitude can. Choosing to be grateful for any part of a negative experience makes it better. This perspective shift of finding a positive outcome in a negative situation makes what we have been through and endured worth it.

I am thankful for all I have been through because it has made me the person who I am today. It has given me experience and perspective that can build the Kingdom of God. Was some of it awful? Absolutely.

But I can either choose to dwell on the negative or I can choose to find something good that came of it.

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Every good thing we have is a gift from God. If you ever feel like you don’t have anything to pray for, give thanks for the breath in your lungs. Unless you are dead, you have something you can give thanks for.  If you ate today, you can give thanks. If you know where you will sleep tonight, you can give thanks.

Looking at the simplest blessings you have will surely move your heart toward gratefulness.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Gratitude combats anxiety. This is psychologically proven by the secular mental health community AND is biblically true. Giving thanks to God for what we do have and bringing our needs to Him in prayer takes the weight off of us and brings us peace.

Gratefulness is a discipline, which means it takes practice. Miracles do happen, but not always. Just like exercising, you will need to do it more than once to see the benefits.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

God’s kingdom is solid and unshaken. We stand on a firm foundation in Christ and for that, we can be full of praise and thankfulness. This verse tells us to offer “acceptable worship” and then tell us that “reverence and awe” are required for that. When was the last time you simply meditated on who God is?

Part of our gratitude practice should include simply sitting in His presence with reverence and awe. He could consume us all in fire, but He instead He lets us live, pursuing a relationship with us relentlessly.

2 Corinthians 9:11-12

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

A large reason that God blesses us is so that we can take that surplus and bless others. The world would tell you to hold tightly to your extra for the future, but if you practice gratitude regularly, generosity will be a natural result.

As this scripture tells us, we are enriched so we can be generous. This will stimulate thankfulness in our hearts and in the hearts of those we bless.

1 Corinthians 15:57

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah! We have victory in Jesus. If that doesn’t make your heart glad, I don’t know what will.

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Being in God’s Word and meditating on it helps to have hearts of gratitude and thankfulness. It reminds us of who God is and that we can trust Him.

James 1:2-3

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Finding joy during trials is hard. But scripture tells us we can find something good, even in heartache and pain. When we are hurt and we choose thankfulness and praise, that makes us stronger for the next time we will endure trials.

It is not a question of if we will have suffering in this life, but a matter of when. But God tells us here that we can be thankful when we endure trials because that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Psalms of Thanksgiving & Gratitude

There are hundreds of Psalms and many more that deal with gratefulness, but these are a few of my favorites.

Psalm 9:1

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 107:8-9

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Psalm 7:17

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song, I give thanks to him.

Psalm 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalm 34:1-4

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

I pray these verses blessed you, friend, and that they fill your heart with gratefulness towards the Lord.