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CULTIVATING GRATITUDE

"Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blameless I will show my salvation."
PSALM 50:23
If there was ever a cure for being "hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Hebrews 3:13) in a man's life, it's offering thanks to God. It's so easy to let the worries and distractions of this life pull us away from the things that matter; they make us forgetful of the blessings we've received and are daily living in. It takes humility to admit it and direct action to reverse it. And no action softens the heart and encourages the spirit like offering thanks to God.
The scriptures often use the word sacrifice in context of thanksgiving. The first instances of sacrificing an offering to God were Cain and Abel. Abel did it well, with a genuinely thankful heart, and Cain did not. The objects offered are not what God receives, but rather the gratitude itself. Consider Jesus' comments to one of ten lepers He had healed:
He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?"
(Luke 17:16-18)
Thanksgiving opens up the relationship God Himself wants. Not giving thanks is the symptom of those who have abandoned truth, as Romans 1:21 (NIV) says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."