we're required to be thankful right?

There is absolutely no requirement for us to be thankful...sounds weird doesn't it?

God doesn't demand us to be thankful, but it does please him.

In Luke 17, there is a story about Jesus healing ten men with Leprosy.

Whenever someone thought the Leprosy has gone away, they were supposed to present themselves to the priest who would declare them clean. Jesus sent the ten men to the priest and they were healed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 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 retuned to give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:15-19)

One of the ten men returned to Jesus to thank him. One of ten! That is crazy.

It's possible to receive God's gifts with an ungrateful spirit and we do that way too often. There are way too many things that God blesses me with on a daily basis that I don't even think about being thankful for. To me, thankfulness creates a realization of faith.

When I am thankful for everything that God has done for me, it makes me faith feel real and it simply makes me more aware of how real God is.

Thankfulness allows us to grow in our understanding of God's grace. He then uses our thankfulness and responsiveness to teach us more about himself.

See, being thankful means way more than just being thankful. Thankfulness creates a sense of awareness, responsiveness, and a realization of the work that God is constantly doing in our lives.

My challenge for you is to view thankfulness as an opportunity to grow, not a requirement.