100 days of gratitude

I plow my way through another day. not a good day. not a bad day. rather there are few emotions.

It's a saddening feeling to realize you lived 24 of your precious hours and can't remember one grace from God that you gave thanks for. I'm not talking about the legalistic lengthy list God wants to see by your bedside at the end of the day as if He was some generous donor that needs a formal thank you note. I'm talking about a heart that is characteristic of gratitude because of God's grace expressed everyday in the stubbed toes and the 3-year-old smiles.

Thankfulness because I never have to face God's wrath.

"Life's blessings, however small, always appear exceedingly precious when viewed against the backdrop of the wrath I deserve." (gospel primer)

Thankfulness because all I know is God's rich grace to me.

"When I look at any circumstance that God apportions me, I am first grateful for the wrath I am not receiving in that moment. Second, I am grateful for the blessings that are given to me instead of His wrath." (gospel primer)

Thankfulness because He's said to "count it all joy."

Thankfulness because the gospel is just as true today as it was yesterday and God is in the process of working it into my life.

"Thanksgiving--giving thanks in everything--prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ." (one thousand gifts)

I pray for a heart full of thankfulness and I want to spend the next 100 days seeking God to do that work in my heart and building a discipline of looking, soaking in, noticing, and praising. I'll be posting seemingly ordinary daily occurrences on twitter. They won't be profound. They won't be fancy. But it'll be a form of accountability and a way of sharing of God's goodness.

(Feel free to join in this excursion. You can use hashtags #100daysofgratitude and #day1, #day2, etc. Follow me on twitter.)