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Practicing Thankfulness: Cultivating a Grateful Heart in All Circumstances
Practical Teaching on Practicing Thankfulness
What Christians believe about God is visible in how they exhibit thankfulness for all he has done on their behalf. Pastor Sam Crabtree offers a practical resource to encourage believers to express glad-hearted thankfulness for God's unending provision. This book provides insight into daily practices that exemplify thankfulness, such as speaking a word of thanks to a neighbor, serving others in a practical way, or thanking God for his many gifts. By living each day with gratitude in mind, Christians are doing more than saying a word of thanks, or lending a helping hand--they are recognizing the absolute and total lordship of God, his sovereignty over all things, and his kindness in using his almighty power to work all things for good.
What Christians believe about God is visible in how they exhibit thankfulness for all he has done on their behalf. Pastor Sam Crabtree offers a practical resource to encourage believers to express glad-hearted thankfulness for God's unending provision. This book provides insight into daily practices that exemplify thankfulness, such as speaking a word of thanks to a neighbor, serving others in a practical way, or thanking God for his many gifts. By living each day with gratitude in mind, Christians are doing more than saying a word of thanks, or lending a helping hand--they are recognizing the absolute and total lordship of God, his sovereignty over all things, and his kindness in using his almighty power to work all things for good.
123 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2021
54 people are currently reading
567 people want to read
About the author
Sam Crabtree
8 books13 followersSam Crabtree (MEd, South Dakota State) is a pastor at the Mounds View campus of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a former public school teacher and has served at Bethlehem Baptist Church since 1997. He serves as the board chairman for Bethlehem College & Seminary and a board officer for desiringGod.org. Sam and his wife, Vicki, live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and have two daughters and six grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
February 5, 2024
Some of the best gifts come in small packages - an engagement ring, a ticket to Europe, a diamond pendant. From time to time, a small book will hit the shelves that pack a powerful punch. Such is the case with Sam Crabtree’s, Practicing Thankfulness.
Crabtree’s little book is barely 100 pages but is filled with biblical wisdom, practical encouragement, and even contains some much-needed admonition. The book revolves around the author’s definition of gratitude:
Gratitude is the divinely given spiritual ability to see grace, and the corresponding desirer to affirm it and its giver as good.
Crabbtree builds an unshakeable edifice around this definition by demonstrating the need for gratitude, the wisdom of gratitude, and the end result of gratitude. A chapter that is especially helpful, Portrait of a Grateful Heart helps readers understand the need to be utterly transformed by Christ. In other words, what we truly need is not merely to be thankful; our hearts must be transformed by Christ. The author adds, “Our hearts pivot on the word of Christ. Either they swivel toward him in wonder and gratitude and affection, or they swivel away from him in stubborn, truth-suppressing pride or apathetic indifference.” In the end, gratitude toward God reveals that a person has a regenerate heart, one that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit.
The author reveals the dangers of ingratitude. Indeed, “the very dividing line between glory and dishonor is whether a person gives thanks or not.” He adds, “Thanklessness is at the root of homosexuality, covetousness, envy, murder, and a whole array of foolish and faithless derailments, as clearly stated in Romans 1:21-32.” The entitlement mindset, which has American young people in a death grip is laid bare in this chapter as the author compares the thankful person with the ingrate.
In recent years, a growing number of books and resources have focused on the subject of gratitude. Crabtree’s book is unique in that his encouragement is intimately connected to the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. A person may grow in his or her ability to express gratitude but such an exercise falls dreadfully short if it fails to acknowledge the supreme gift Giver, namely, the Creator of the cosmos. In other words, a person may express gratitude but prove to be an ingrate if God is not honored, acknowledged, and glorified.
Practicing Thankfulness, while challenging throughout, is a deeply warm and practical book. Sam Crabtree writes with the heart of a pastor and one who has not yet arrived. Readers will be enriched, educated, and moved to action. They will grow in their ability to practice gratitude, which will pay rich dividends to everyone in their circle of influence. Most of all, God will receive the glory and they acknowledge him for every good gift - even small packages.
Crabtree’s little book is barely 100 pages but is filled with biblical wisdom, practical encouragement, and even contains some much-needed admonition. The book revolves around the author’s definition of gratitude:
Gratitude is the divinely given spiritual ability to see grace, and the corresponding desirer to affirm it and its giver as good.
Crabbtree builds an unshakeable edifice around this definition by demonstrating the need for gratitude, the wisdom of gratitude, and the end result of gratitude. A chapter that is especially helpful, Portrait of a Grateful Heart helps readers understand the need to be utterly transformed by Christ. In other words, what we truly need is not merely to be thankful; our hearts must be transformed by Christ. The author adds, “Our hearts pivot on the word of Christ. Either they swivel toward him in wonder and gratitude and affection, or they swivel away from him in stubborn, truth-suppressing pride or apathetic indifference.” In the end, gratitude toward God reveals that a person has a regenerate heart, one that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit.
The author reveals the dangers of ingratitude. Indeed, “the very dividing line between glory and dishonor is whether a person gives thanks or not.” He adds, “Thanklessness is at the root of homosexuality, covetousness, envy, murder, and a whole array of foolish and faithless derailments, as clearly stated in Romans 1:21-32.” The entitlement mindset, which has American young people in a death grip is laid bare in this chapter as the author compares the thankful person with the ingrate.
In recent years, a growing number of books and resources have focused on the subject of gratitude. Crabtree’s book is unique in that his encouragement is intimately connected to the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. A person may grow in his or her ability to express gratitude but such an exercise falls dreadfully short if it fails to acknowledge the supreme gift Giver, namely, the Creator of the cosmos. In other words, a person may express gratitude but prove to be an ingrate if God is not honored, acknowledged, and glorified.
Practicing Thankfulness, while challenging throughout, is a deeply warm and practical book. Sam Crabtree writes with the heart of a pastor and one who has not yet arrived. Readers will be enriched, educated, and moved to action. They will grow in their ability to practice gratitude, which will pay rich dividends to everyone in their circle of influence. Most of all, God will receive the glory and they acknowledge him for every good gift - even small packages.
October 28, 2024
Convicting and practical. I especially love how he pointed out how so many of the sins we struggle with evidence our thanklessness. This feels like a book I’ll pick up again because it is filled with much needed reminders.
November 27, 2025
Lots of good thoughts on contentment and trusting the Lord’s provision. It was very convicting and encouraging to read this morning.
November 26, 2022
“…people who think, thank…’Thank you’ conveys not only humility, but understanding.”
March 1, 2024
“A spirit of thankfulness is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian who’s heart that is attuned to the Lord.” Billy Graham
“Gratitude is both a vital indicator of our soul’s health and a powerful defender of our soul’s happiness.” John Bloom
I liked the concept of gratefulness having restorative power for both the giver and receiver. Also, how thankfulness depends upon an awareness of dependence. Without it, we dismiss the ways God works and others serve. “Deserve” is a plague in our culture.
Some of the assertions in this book felt a too black and white, particularly in regard to the “root of homosexuality.”
“Gratitude is both a vital indicator of our soul’s health and a powerful defender of our soul’s happiness.” John Bloom
I liked the concept of gratefulness having restorative power for both the giver and receiver. Also, how thankfulness depends upon an awareness of dependence. Without it, we dismiss the ways God works and others serve. “Deserve” is a plague in our culture.
Some of the assertions in this book felt a too black and white, particularly in regard to the “root of homosexuality.”
September 27, 2022
Great stuff. This one will bear regular revisiting.
Narrator had a Countrytime Lemonade sort of voice. I think it was a good fit for the author's personality.
Narrator had a Countrytime Lemonade sort of voice. I think it was a good fit for the author's personality.
May 20, 2025
A simple and helpful little book about the vital role gratitude plays in the Christian life. Crabtree powerfully contrasts the ways ingratitude leads to all kinds of sin and the ways thankfulness to God—through the work of the Holy Spirit—is a powerful tool to put nagging sin to death. Leaving it challenged to grow in thankfulness in all circumstances, big and small.
June 2, 2024
This book was a spark to my heart! Thankfulness is a foremost thing we do unto a God who is a good and holy giver to a people that don’t deserve anything but his wrath. Gratitude is not just necessary but essential to the Christian and their walk. It is what motivates worship, forgiveness, Christlike compassion and joyful suffering. So thankful for this book and its continuance to point my heart back to Gods word and to be simply thankful for all that he is, has done, and continues to do.
August 13, 2025
Honestly needed a book like this in my current season and was very encouraged each time I picked it up. Great resource for biblical framework on gratitude and helped to deepen my understanding and desire for being more grateful in life. Valuable resource I’ll be referencing again in the future!
March 30, 2024
A fantastic book that anybody would benefit from reading about the importance of thankfulness and how to help cultivate it in your life. It’s also not too long!
March 4, 2021
Thankfulness helps us overcome fear, depression, anger, outrage, bitterness, suicide and more.
I have read several books on thankfulness and this text rises above all the others. Why? Most of grew up being reminded to be thankful. The deeper question is thankful to who and why does it matter. It can be automatic to say thank you but not grab your heart. This text does that because it is a heart issue. If you suffer from relational problems or you can't seem to overcome an addiction, heartfelt thankfulness takes the focus off you and gives you a way forward. Thankfulness does not change your circumstances or wishful thinking but it does give you power of hope and not despair.
The following is a list of chapters
The Rightness of Gratitude
The Wisdom of Gratitude
Portrait of a Grateful Heart
The Fruitfulness of Gratitude
Dangers of ingratitude
Thankfulness in Action
Thankfulness and Contentment
Thankfulness and Wonder
Thankfulness and Suffering
Hinderances to Thankfulness
Questions about Thankfulness
One Hundred ways to be Thankful
My favorite chapter is thankfulness and Wonder. It reminded me of my grandchildren and seeing first in their eyes. Their excitement of a new experience. Of being with family and friends. They may not express their thankfulness but in their awe and wonder, their hearts are soft and receive love. It reminds me that you cannot give what you have not received. Thankfulness in its many forms does that. Highly recommend. And my word of thanks to Crossway Publishing for always providing books that deepen my faith. It means the world to me. I thank God for you
A special thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
I have read several books on thankfulness and this text rises above all the others. Why? Most of grew up being reminded to be thankful. The deeper question is thankful to who and why does it matter. It can be automatic to say thank you but not grab your heart. This text does that because it is a heart issue. If you suffer from relational problems or you can't seem to overcome an addiction, heartfelt thankfulness takes the focus off you and gives you a way forward. Thankfulness does not change your circumstances or wishful thinking but it does give you power of hope and not despair.
The following is a list of chapters
The Rightness of Gratitude
The Wisdom of Gratitude
Portrait of a Grateful Heart
The Fruitfulness of Gratitude
Dangers of ingratitude
Thankfulness in Action
Thankfulness and Contentment
Thankfulness and Wonder
Thankfulness and Suffering
Hinderances to Thankfulness
Questions about Thankfulness
One Hundred ways to be Thankful
My favorite chapter is thankfulness and Wonder. It reminded me of my grandchildren and seeing first in their eyes. Their excitement of a new experience. Of being with family and friends. They may not express their thankfulness but in their awe and wonder, their hearts are soft and receive love. It reminds me that you cannot give what you have not received. Thankfulness in its many forms does that. Highly recommend. And my word of thanks to Crossway Publishing for always providing books that deepen my faith. It means the world to me. I thank God for you
A special thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
April 3, 2025
Will be ordering a hard copy!
April 29, 2021
Disappointing.
I was really excited to read this book and meditate more on thankfulness, but I halfway through I just couldn’t read it anymore. His writing lacked conciseness and some of his arguments felt inflated. Most of all, I wish this book talked a lot more about the importance of thankfulness in prayer.
One argument I really disagreed with was over complaint. Crabtree argues that complaining is bad and we should “consciously and intentionally put off complaining.” That we should simply tell ourselves to shut up. I find this really harmful because, in doing so, we miss out on the grace of lament. How many times do the authors of lament bring their complaint before God, then turn their hearts to greater trust in Him? I would argue that we can get back to that thankfulness through lament rather than telling ourselves not to complain.
I was really excited to read this book and meditate more on thankfulness, but I halfway through I just couldn’t read it anymore. His writing lacked conciseness and some of his arguments felt inflated. Most of all, I wish this book talked a lot more about the importance of thankfulness in prayer.
One argument I really disagreed with was over complaint. Crabtree argues that complaining is bad and we should “consciously and intentionally put off complaining.” That we should simply tell ourselves to shut up. I find this really harmful because, in doing so, we miss out on the grace of lament. How many times do the authors of lament bring their complaint before God, then turn their hearts to greater trust in Him? I would argue that we can get back to that thankfulness through lament rather than telling ourselves not to complain.
July 27, 2024
In this short but impactful book, Crabtree opens our eyes to see the need for and wisdom and benefit of gratitude as a means of increasing our capacity for seeing and savoring the goodness of the Lord.
June 6, 2024
This is one of my favorite books I’ve read in recent years. Highly recommend!
“In this very moment [God] is using your current set of circumstances as one link in the unbreakable chain of links forged by his unrelenting love and infinite wisdom to accomplish for you the unspeakably valuable privilege of being conformed to the image of his Son. Therefore we’re wise to be thankful not only for the promise that he’ll complete what he has begun — and not only for the chain of completion as a whole — but also for every individual link in the chain.” (page 30)
“In this very moment [God] is using your current set of circumstances as one link in the unbreakable chain of links forged by his unrelenting love and infinite wisdom to accomplish for you the unspeakably valuable privilege of being conformed to the image of his Son. Therefore we’re wise to be thankful not only for the promise that he’ll complete what he has begun — and not only for the chain of completion as a whole — but also for every individual link in the chain.” (page 30)
September 22, 2024
3.5
Helpful book with a clear and obvious reminder to thank God.
My critiques of the book is that his writing often doesn’t flow and the path of the book is a bit disjointed. I believe he also lacks some nuance in being thankful FOR everything (are we to be thankful for sin?) and how to properly intermingle thanksgiving and petitions toward God.
The 100 ways to show thankfulness at the end was also insightful and a nice way of application.
Helpful book with a clear and obvious reminder to thank God.
My critiques of the book is that his writing often doesn’t flow and the path of the book is a bit disjointed. I believe he also lacks some nuance in being thankful FOR everything (are we to be thankful for sin?) and how to properly intermingle thanksgiving and petitions toward God.
The 100 ways to show thankfulness at the end was also insightful and a nice way of application.
July 23, 2025
2nd time reading.... Definitely one of the best and top books I've ever read. And that last chapter that lists 100 ideas/ways we can be grateful? It makes my heart soar. And makes me praise God for so many underserved blessings.
A book every Christian no doubt would benefit from.
A book every Christian no doubt would benefit from.
November 30, 2024
This book was challenging and It gave practical helps for cultivating a heart of thankfulness.
One of my favorite parts of the book was when he talked about contentment and being alert.
“Those who are awake are constantly grateful. Our alerts will fuel our thankfulness”
May I grow in having eyes of wonder and being observant of all of the gifts around me. And may gratefulness follow”.
“Stuff your eyes with wonder”. Ray Bradbury
A few other favorite quotes:
“Gratitude need not and must not hinge solely on the presence or absence of certain circumstances triumph vs trial but on the presence of God”.
“Thankfulness involves an awareness of dependence”.
“Expressing gratitude is so simple yet so powerful
“Thankfulness and happiness go together”
One of my favorite parts of the book was when he talked about contentment and being alert.
“Those who are awake are constantly grateful. Our alerts will fuel our thankfulness”
May I grow in having eyes of wonder and being observant of all of the gifts around me. And may gratefulness follow”.
“Stuff your eyes with wonder”. Ray Bradbury
A few other favorite quotes:
“Gratitude need not and must not hinge solely on the presence or absence of certain circumstances triumph vs trial but on the presence of God”.
“Thankfulness involves an awareness of dependence”.
“Expressing gratitude is so simple yet so powerful
“Thankfulness and happiness go together”
May 23, 2024
Really good book on how to cultivate thankfulness. The author focuses in on Romans 1 to show the folly of not giving thanks to God, and encourages readers towards a posture of gratitude to God, especially in light of His sovereignty over all things good (creation, salvation, etc.) and bad (suffering, trials, etc.). Very practical resource - which is no surprise after reading ‘Practicing Affirmation’.
May 19, 2025
In the age of having your basic needs met quite easily, it can be common to forget that all good things come from the Lord, this was a great reminder to be thankful for what he has blessed us with, and also very practical in terms of pointing out stuff that you wouldn't typically be thankful for, either by your own emotions toward said event or object, or by just the fact that you use something everyday and subconsciously don't feel like you should express thankfulness for it.
December 3, 2025
Will come back to this book many times! The list in the back of the book should be consulted every week-- in our affluent culture, and social media crazed world the need to recognize all our blessings as gifts from a good God and to humble ourselves (myself) to give thanks is oft ignored and desperately needed!!
Practice! Every day I want to practice!
Practice! Every day I want to practice!
November 24, 2022
It was Good! It was very biblical and made a solid case for the importance of practicing thankfulness to God. I liked also at the very end it had 100 ideas to practice thankfulness.
Nothing really ground breaking, but filled with great meditations and reminders to push you to practice thankfulness.
Nothing really ground breaking, but filled with great meditations and reminders to push you to practice thankfulness.
November 1, 2024
A powerful potent book with tangible practices to implement thanksgiving into your life. It is one that can be easily reread in different seasons. Crabtree's approach to gratitude is not just as a best practice, but it is rooted in the gospel and the transformation of the spirit.
August 25, 2022
Good ground work on why one should cultivate thankfulness and the benefits of thankfulness. The book concludes with a list of 100 ways to start cultivating a thankful
Heart in ALL circumstances.
Heart in ALL circumstances.
December 6, 2022
This is a thought provoking read that for sure challenges you to step it up and be more intentional. Worth your time for sure.
February 27, 2024
Thank you, Sam for writing this book.
Really really good, one I plan on re reading on a consistent basis.
Really really good, one I plan on re reading on a consistent basis.
December 1, 2024
Helpful little book on why we should be thankful, as well as practical aids to cultivating thankfulness in our daily lives.
December 13, 2024
Cute lil reminder I guess
August 28, 2025
You should read this!!! It is simple and pretty repetitive, but it is so good. He emphasizes the fact that thanks without an object is pointless, and God is always the object of anything we have to give thanks for. So good! Not groundbreaking or super deep but very Biblical
October 28, 2025
4.5 -Super solid, Biblical perspective on gratitude and contentment. I listened to the audiobook and it was excellent, and practical. Definitely re-oriented my mind towards a grateful heart, and at the end of the book he has a whole list of practical things you can do right now to help you grow in this area. I would purchase and refer back to this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews