Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!                 1 Chronicles 16:34 ESV

He is so good, isn’t He?

But, let’s be painfully honest with each other — sometimes it’s hard to feel thankful.

When we’re discouraged, feeling lost, or facing a deep hurt, it’s hard to connect with genuine gratitude.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I’ve made the gratitude list and counted all my blessings and nothing seemed to help. I still felt discouraged, disillusioned, and disconnected.

When this happens to me, it’s easy to feel guilty and question myself — especially as a Christian woman.

So when making a list of things I’m thankful for isn’t working, how can I grow my gratitude?

Growing Gratitude 

When we have a question like that, we should always go to God’s word. The Bible is such and amazing thing! What we can learn from digging in never ends — especially when we go back and look at the original languages in which it was written.

Did you know that there’s actually no one word in the Old Testament that means “give thanks” (thanksgiving) as it is defined in English?

However, many verses in the Old Testament of the Bible that translate into the English word “thanks” come from the Hebrew root word yadah.

Yadah is a Hebrew word that means…

• to cast, throw on-target (hit the “bull’s-eye”) 
• to acknowledge as “spot on” 
• grateful recognition which includes thanksgiving, confession, or praise
• being right on target

The root word yadah is an expression of all of these things done simultaneously. As believers, we offer thanks, praise, and confession to the Lord when we acknowledge that what He does is without flaw. 

Yadah is a thank-praise offering! 

There’s more. 

Yadah is used as a verb. This particular type of verb conveys these things:

• • a necessary action, 
  • the subject acting in character and intentionally, 
  • carefully following through by taking the implied action steps.

When I think about making a gratitude list — something that doesn’t always work for me, I realize this:

Any gratitude list I make is good, but it only scratches the surface. In addition to the list of things I’m thankful for, there is so much more. And it comes to light when I begin to understand what being thankful truly means. 

The fuller meaning from a more descriptive original language (Hewbrew in this case) helps us understand the fullness of God’s Word.

In addition to “thanks” as we traditionally think of it, there is…

Praise — worshipping God for Who He is, his nature and character

Confession —in this case meaning to agree with what is true.

Acknowledgement — that all is right in everything the Lord does.

Everything the Lord does in our lives, is always spot on. It hits the bull’s eye — even the things we don’t understand. 

The thankfulness, the praise, the confession, the acknowledgement — these things are all so intertwined — so much so that we truly can’t separate them. 

And amazingly, His word doesn’t ask us to. 

God’s Word — even down to one single Hebrew root word like this one — is reminding us….

Just come to Me as you are. 

One Simple Practice to Grow Your Gratitude

What if genuine thankfulness naturally happens when we come to the Lord as our authentic selves? 

It’s such a simple thing to do…

We love Him and we want to worship Him for His nature and character.

We come to align with His truth so we can say the same thing about something that God says.

We come thanking Him for His grace and mercy.

We show up loving Him for giving His life for us.

We’re grateful in the way that we’ve always thought of gratefulness — truly thankful for the things He has given.

We come acknowledging that everything He does in our lives is spot on — even the things we don’t understand.

In all this, we come as we are — surrendered and wanting to connect more and more with who He is so we can be more and more like Jesus is. 

Understanding thanks in this way — the yadah way — gives me such a BIG sigh of relief. 

When the gratitude list doesn’t seem to connect me to thankfulness, when mentally ticking off all my blessings doesn’t help me either, I know I’m still able to be genuinely thankful when I simply come to the Lord as I always go to Him — as myself. 

His wonderfully relieving invitation has always been…come to me as you are. 

Come to Me As You Are 

He always meets us where we are. 

And then…

Thankfulness happens naturally.

Coming before Him as we are is a simple and completely do-able practice that we can happen anytime and anywhere. The natural result is yadah — praise-thanks — and our gratitude naturally grows. 

Being thankful in the yadah way is a vital and necessary action step in our lives. Even the root word itself calls us to be intentional in this. 

The wonderful thing is, it happens naturally by just showing up in God’s presence! 

Today, ask yourself this question: 

What does it look like in my life to be thankful in the yadah way? 

I’d love to hear your response! Feel free to comment below! 

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever! – 1 Chronicles 16:34 ESV

Definitions in this article were sourced from The Discovery Bible HELPS Word-studies, Gary Hill, 2017. I also did research at biblehub.com.