In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

I’ve had people say to me, “Why are you putting so much effort into this little house/this student/this job/etc?” My response is ALWAYS: Thank you makes room for more.”

If you don’t appreciate where you are—don’t take care of this house, that car, whatever assignment or current lot you have in life—you will NEVER draw better to yourself. God loves gratefulness. That is what praise inherently is: gratefulness.

And it doesn’t look like running church aisles and speaking in tongues. That’s not the real gratitude. Real gratitude kicks in when nobody is there to see you do it. Sometimes, it looks like cleaning a 900 square foot apartment like it’s a million dollar private property. Or it looks like working with that struggling student who doesn’t care from start to finish. Or it looks like being humble and working hard even though your boss is trash. Or it looks like washing that hooptie like it’s a Benz. Or it looks like ironing that same suit til it shines. Or it looks like smiling while everybody else is complaining —you know despising the shame for the JOY set before you.

Get into it.

Now, God doesn’t withhold blessings per se, but there IS A DOOR TO MORE when you are genuinely appreciative of what He HAS done. 10 lepers where healed; only one was fully RESTORED. Why? HE CAME BACK AND SAID THANK YOU.

Let that sit. And you sit in it.

Now when you get up again? Do so with the debt of gratitude in your heart and on your lips. You can never be thankful enough. Never.