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In this episode...

Gratitude, God, and Perceiving Proper Value

https://faithfulontheclock.com/gratitude-god-and-perceiving-proper-value

Most people consider gratitude during the Thanksgiving holiday. But Episode 139 of Faithful on the Clock asks: Are you grateful for God as He is, or just His blessings?

Timestamps:

[00:04] - Intro

[00:42] - My experience of feeling inferior walking past nice houses; how a sense of material items, gratitude, and the sense of self can get wrapped up together

[03:53] - The futility of trying not to want what you want; the white bear problem

[04:38] - What’s better than the things we covet; the relationship between the value we perceive and the amount of gratitude we have and how it influences our ability where gratitude gets directed

[06:22] - God sees us as the most valuable and is grateful for us, so much that He gave His Son, Jesus

[7:18] - The need to honor the reciprocity in our relationship with God; why we need to be grateful not just for God’s blessings, but for God as He is; how Job’s story shows reciprocal value and gratitude between God and Job and God correcting the Devil about what love is

[10:47] - Prayer

[11:43] - Outro/What’s coming up next

Key takeaways:

• When I was walking my dog, seeing expensive houses made me feel inferior and sad, despite what I know about God’s provision and instruction not to store up treasures on Earth. My sense of worth was jumbled up with the worth of material items and perceived blessings.
• Gurus will tell you to learn to be more grateful for what you have, but the best way to abandon something is to find something better to replace it with. Because gratitude is proportional to the value we place on something, we have to learn to put value on the right things to be grateful for them. This includes God!
• Our relationship with God is reciprocal. He sees value in and is grateful for us. In return, we should see value in and be grateful for Him, not just the blessings He might offer to us. God doesn’t want to be appreciated just for what He gives, but rather, for Who He is.
• This Thanksgiving, challenge yourself to tell the Devil that your love and gratitude is for God, not just stuff or conveniences. This replays the story of Job, where Job put the Devil in His place by loving and appreciating God even when all of the blessings God had given to him were stolen.