The Bible enjoins gratitude and thanksgiving – not only in good times but “always” (Philippians 4:4). And it even makes sweeping claims about the benefits, both mental (Philippians 4:6, 7) and physical (Proverbs 17:22), of a positive, grateful attitude. In this message we look at fascinating scientific studies that underscore the Bible’s injunctions of thankfulness. We were made for praise!

<p>The Bible enjoins gratitude and thanksgiving – not only in good times but “always” (Philippians 4:4). And it even makes sweeping claims about the benefits, both mental (Philippians 4:6, 7) and physical (Proverbs 17:22), of a positive, grateful attitude. In this message we look at fascinating scientific studies that underscore the Bible’s injunctions of thankfulness. We were made for praise!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

The Science of Thankfulness

There once was an old preacher in North Dakota.

The people were always amazed for no matter what was going on in his church or in the community, he always found something to be thankful for.

And as he made his rounds on 1 blustery cold December morning, he was late getting to the worship service because the snow drifts were so deep that he had to wade through.

He came rather bedraggled and frazzled and as he began the worship service with prayer, his parishioners were anxious to see what it was that he would be thankful for on this day.

The old preacher began his prayer, Gracious Lord, we thank you that all days are not like today.

You know, there's always something to be thankful for, isn't there?

Last week we were talking about the pattern of thanksgiving throughout the Old Testament, and this week we're going to be looking at the science of thankfulness.

To me it's very encouraging as I see what the simple thing of giving thanks can do.

The activity that we might take for granted or only practice on an annual basis, if carried out throughout the year, could revolutionize our lives and our cultures.

And so we're gonna begin by just reflecting on some of the texts in the New Testament that encourage us to give thanks.

And we begin with some of the writings of Paul.

And Paul was no hypocrite, as we'll see later.

He himself gave thanks, but he urged people everywhere.

And a few verses later he says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Ephesians 5 verse 20 says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Very inclusive language here Paul uses, isn't it?

He continues on in Philippians 4, in verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always, and in case we thought there were some exceptions to the always, he says, and again I say to you, rejoice, right?

He's drilling in that concept into our consciousness that we ought to always rejoice.

Now this may seem like these are familiar verses, and of course we know that, but when we reflect on our daily lives, do we really practice it?

That's the question that we ought to ask ourselves.

Philippians 4 and verse 6, a few verses later, be careful for nothing.

Some translations say don't be anxious about anything.

Be careful, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." And then it goes on and it says, the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus.

We're going to see this morning some of the modern scientific evidence that suggests that the Bible is true.

Of course, we knew that already, didn't we?

We knew that the Bible is true and that God who created us, who programmed us, who knows how we are made, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, he knows best how we can thrive, not just survive.

And so the Bible says that if we will let God know everything about our lives, with thanksgiving, With grateful hearts, the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus.

Paul in his epistles often began, almost always began his epistles with something to be thankful for.

You can go through each of his letters, and of course he wrote most of the books of the New Testament so it's not just a few, and you can see how he was the 1 who was writing thankfulness and gratitude as he began his epistles.

Romans begins this way, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

1 Thessalonians begins similarly, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.

Now today we recognize that this is a New Testament injunction, that God encourages us to be grateful, that Paul did it, the apostles did it.

But did you know That simply being thankful can have a multitude of benefits in your life.

I found this little diagram and we're not going to spend time on each and every 1 of these areas, but we'll just give a little bit of an overview of all the different ways that gratitude and thanksgiving can impact your life.

And that's a little hard to read isn't it?

But you can see that in the area of personality, Gratitude makes you less self-centered, more optimistic, better self-esteem, more spirituality, emotions, more good feelings, more relaxed, more resilient, less envious, social, more social, a healthier marriage, kinder, more friendships, deeper relationships, career, better management, improved networking, improved decision making, and health.

Do you know you sleep better when you're grateful?

I learned a lot working on this study today.

Less sick, more longevity, increased energy.

Are you interested in some of these health benefits?

Are you interested in knowing how it actually works and how you can be benefited by them?

1 of the books that I read in preparing for this was called Thanks by Robert Emmons.

Now, he's a University of California, Davis, professor, and he has been very involved in studying the science of gratitude.

And 1 of the things that he, 1 of the experiments they conducted in doing their research, they instructed people to keep a journal listing 5 things for which they felt grateful.

I mean, some of us are not very good at journaling.

I wish I'd kept a diary and I could remember some of the places I've been better if I could go back and reflect on some of my musings when I was there, but I'm just not that good at journaling or diaries.

This is just 5 things for which we feel grateful.

So this is what they had to do, list 5 things for which they felt grateful, like a friend's generosity, something they've learned, a sunset they enjoyed.

The second group, they had write about daily irritations or things that had displeased them.

And the third group, the control group, wrote about events that had affected them.

They were told to write about anything that affects them throughout their day, doesn't have to be positive or negative.

And the gratitude journal was to be brief, the things they were writing was to be brief, only 1 sentence per item, so 5 sentences.

And that's not a long exhaustive writing, right?

Only 5 sentences, and it was only to be done once a week.

1 group, things they're grateful for, 1 group, things that irritated them, another group, just things that affected them.

After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.

Surprisingly, they were also exercising more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who had focused on the stresses of and the sources of aggravation.

Further benefits were observed when they did this with a group of polio survivors and others with neuromuscular symptoms and problems.

The ones who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling happier and more optimistic than those in the control group.

And not only were they reporting to be more happier, their spouses corroborated their increased happiness.

So just a little bit of a second opinion there.

But interestingly enough, these people also, these grateful people also fell asleep more quickly at night, slept longer, and woke up feeling more refreshed.

Just by keeping a journal once a week, 5 sentences, 5 things they're thankful for.

Emond says, if you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep.

Another leading researcher in this field, Dr.

Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on over 400 people, each compared with a control assignment of writing about early memories.

When their week's assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for something they had done in their lives.

They were asked to personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had not been properly thanked for something that had been done in their lives.

Participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores.

This impact was greater than any other intervention the psychologists tried.

Just writing a letter of thank you and they found that the effects lasted for more than a month.

More than a month after simply writing a letter of gratitude and thanks to someone else.

Another study had to do with those who had the chronic fatigue syndrome.

And again, they asked them to write journals reporting about the satisfaction of things in their lives.

And people who wrote in the gratitude journals reported they were more optimistic and they were sleeping more, spending less time awake before falling asleep and feeling more refreshed in the morning.

1 of the researchers said that If you really want to sleep well, you need to be thankful, you need to have gratitude.

Another study in the University of Connecticut found that gratitude can have a protective effect against heart attacks.

Studying people who had experienced 1 heart attack, the researchers found that those patients who saw benefits and gains from their heart attack, in other words, they looked back at this terrible experience they'd had in their lives with some thankfulness or gratitude, they were thankful for the benefits that had come about because of this heart attack, the researchers found that those patients experienced a lower risk of having another heart attack just by being thankful for their first heart attack.

Now that doesn't sound like something to be thankful for, but these people found something, some benefit that they could find in their heart attack.

In fact, another research that I saw was done by Roland McCarty, McCraty, of Heart Math.

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The Science of Thankfulness

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