Gratitude is a powerful healing quality—and it’s a lifesaver. I know, because it saved my life years ago.
It’s also a lifesaver in the Bible story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus went to Lazarus, the Bible tells us: “Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:41–44).
Before calling forth Lazarus from the grave, Jesus gave God thanks! This gratitude affirmed God’s presence and broke through the mesmeric miasma of desolation, despondency, and even death. Gratitude is the recognition of God’s ever-presence and power.
