Gratitude Is God’s Fuel for Healthy Christian Living
- Jack Selcher
- Jul 16, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Summary
Gratitude is God’s intended fuel for healthy Christian living. Through personal reflection, biblical instruction, and research, this article shows that gratitude shapes attitudes, actions, and spiritual growth. Remembering God’s deliverance, now fulfilled in Christ, motivates obedience far better than guilt or duty. As believers root themselves deeply in Jesus and practice daily thankfulness, their lives increasingly overflow with joy, health, and faithful living.
Gratitude made them do it. At a funeral of a mutual pastoral friend, I was surprised to see a pastor and his wife, whom I highly respect. He was a helpful mentor during the beginning of my pastoral ministry. They drove more than two hours from their home to attend.
He told me that the deceased pastor had been a very positive Christian influence on his father many years ago and was a significant reason for his dad’s eventual involvement in the church. His dad’s relationship with Christ eventually blossomed because of his father’s relationship with a pastor, sparked by their mutual interest in cars.
I was also grateful to the deceased pastor for encouraging my ministry and his zeal for evangelism. He had a heart for lost people.
That raises a question in my mind. How much did gratitude motivate our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions last week? It is a significant question.
Gratitude Seen in Faithful Relationships
Ashley J. Smith wrote, “Gratitude can increase your happiness and wellbeing, life satisfaction, even overall health while decreasing the stuff we all want less of like anxiety, depression, and anger.”1
“There’s a growing body of research on the benefits of gratitude. Studies have found that giving thanks and counting blessings can help people sleep better, lower stress, and improve interpersonal relationships….”2
Biblical Roots of a Grateful Life
In my July 2, 2025, devotions, I read Exodus 13:8: “On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’” (NIV).
The New Living Translation is, “On the seventh day you must explain to your children, ‘I am celebrating what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.’”
Remembering God’s Deliverance
The context is how Israelite fathers are to explain to their firstborn sons why they eat bread made without yeast for seven days and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord (v. 6). They do it to remind themselves how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and tap anew the gratitude it inspires.
Gratitude Is God's Fuel
The principle is that gratitude is God’s intended pure, unadulterated fuel of spiritually healthy Christian living. Guilt or duty are inadequate substitutes. I say this, or I do that, not because God delivered me from slavery in Egypt, but because Jesus delivered me from sin’s slavery. We must never forget how much God has done for us who deserve none of it.
Gratitude and Spiritual Growth
Living gratefully rather than ungratefully is healthier even for unbelievers because it reflects how God created humanity to function. “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT).
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness (Colossians 2:6-7 NLT). Thankfulness flows from us when our roots grow down deep into Jesus.
Practicing a Lifestyle of Thankfulness
I suggest we begin a grateful lifestyle by recounting at least five things daily for which we are thankful at bedtime. That will prime the pump for a life that increasingly overflows with thankfulness.
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