Gratitude

Gratitude is “an emotion of the heart, excited by a favor or benefit received; a sentiment of kindness or good will towards a benefactor; thankfulness. gratitude is an agreeable emotion, consisting in or accompanied with good will to a benefactor, and a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services, or when no return can be made, with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty. The love of God is the sublimest gratitude.”—Webster’s American Dictionary


“Gratitude is the graciousness of Christ in action within the soul as thanksgiving.”—Edna Lister


Gratitude is the sign of a truly appreciative soul. Expressing gratitude or thanksgiving is difficult for the arrogant, grasping or stingy soul. Gratitude is gratefulness, appreciation, and thankfulness. Gratitude is a law of being, a law of doing, and a virtue. Gratitude is also the keynote of the fourth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, which includes Fidelity, Obedience and Devotion.







Edna Lister on Gratitude

Gratitude is the offspring of love and selflessness, a soul quality that you must awaken. Base your praise and thankfulness on gratitude.—Edna Lister, Love, the Highway, November 2, 1930.


Praise is the most common form and expression of gratitude.—Edna Lister, Your Royal Birth, January 24, 1933.


Express your gratitude in your praise of God, and love for Him and His gifts.—Edna Lister, Love’s Qualities, April 19, 1934.


The disciples carried on with the Master’s flocks, as he had taught them, about thankfulness and soul gratitude for what they had received of the Lord. Jesus had taught them that praise increases your thankfulness, and that you must remember to pray and praise without ceasing. You can increase your gratitude by praising the other person, telling him how wonderful he is.—Edna Lister, Evidences of Truth, December 2, 1934.


You receive from God after you have praised to express your thankfulness and gratitude.—Edna Lister, How to Pray, May 16, 1935.


Gratitude’s reward is the graciousness of Christed stature.—Edna Lister, The Enemy Approaches, December 15, 1935.


Words do not measure gratitude. No word is great enough to express gratitude. The deeds you grow from your roots of gratitude are the only measure of your gratitude.—Edna Lister, June 6, 1938.


Ascension is the process of substituting gratitude for selfish will and desires.—Edna Lister, The Rich Man Also, June 19, 1938.


Find small things about which to be grateful, and surely the law of increase shall give you hope.—Edna Lister, August 14, 1938.


When called upon, always give more than is asked of time, effort, love, compassion, strength, and the greatest of these is gratitude. Give of this in abundance, lest you crystallize what you brought with you in the beginning.—Edna Lister, November 12, 1938.


Be in a state of grace, which is a state of full praise and full gratitude to the Father for His help, protection and for Power sent for you to release.—Edna Lister, January 2, 1939.


Pray in gratitude for what is already yours to build the line of Light between your dream desire and earth; build from the top down.—Edna Lister, May 7, 1939.


Fill your prayers with joy and gratitude for miracles past and miracles to come. A smile is your sign of the love of God, showering the world as the Master’s own compassion.—Edna Lister, April 1944.


Have immense inner gratitude always.—Edna Lister, July 9, 1945.


Constantly express (be) praise, gratefulness and thankfulness.—Edna Lister, February 14, 1946.


The whole of the Sermon on the Mount holds the Christ laws to live by and become, including the twelve soul virtues—honor, love, joy, peace, harmony, agreeing and adjusting with the Light of God, gratitude, praise, beauty, obedience, compassion, and faith.—Edna Lister, March 1, 1946.


To create, you must first have all-powerful, all consuming desire, then be the knowing faith that also entails gratitude to God.—Edna Lister, January 14, 1947.


You think you are grateful, but you neutralize its quality with rebellion.—Edna Lister, August 17, 1947.


The twelve virtues are honor, love, joy, peace, harmony, agreeing and adjusting with Light, gratitude, praise, beauty, obedience, compassion, and faith.—Edna Lister, July 11, 1949.


Gratitude and praise return to you as abundant miracles.—Edna Lister, And it Came to Pass, September 10, 1950.


I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.—Psalm 121. Do not be so caught in life’s busyness that you forget “from whence your help cometh.”—Edna Lister, September 11, 1952.


The keynote of failure is self-centered complacency. Express more gratitude to strengthen your zeal.—Edna Lister, December 9, 1953.


Add gratitude and praise to your expectancy to increase it.—Edna Lister, What Is Your Gift? June 12, 1955.


Accept praise in gratitude, and forget it.—Edna Lister, The Lord Has Need of Thee, March 25, 1956.


Gratitude is Godlike, for Gos is gracious.—Edna Lister, June 25, 1956.


Don’t let appreciation stick in your throat. Gratitude is the supreme virtue. It’s such an agreeable thing to do, and makes you and the other fellow feel so good.—Edna Lister, July 20, 1956.


Don’t put a stinger in your gratitude.—Edna Lister, July 20, 1956.


Charity is love, as gratitude, forming a perfect relationship.—Edna Lister, The Bond of Perfection, October 6, 1957.


Let others take the credit while you offer gratitude and receive comprehension.—Edna Lister, The Bond of Perfection, October 6, 1957.


Gratitude to God is the beginning of ascension of consciousness, to open the body’s vital centers for healing rays to move through. Do this, and you will recover more quickly.—Edna Lister, March 4, 1958.


Gratitude, praise and rejoicing are the only ways to keep your contact with God shining and bright.—Edna Lister, May 19, 1958.


Pray in gratitude, praising God, not just asking. —Edna Lister, June 25, 1959.


Gratitude and praise will bring a miracle into outer manifestation.—Edna Lister, How Can I Apply Law to My Life? June 7, 1960.


All things increase and are magnified to the glory of God where praise abounds from gratitude. When gratitude is the basis of your prayers, you can have miracle upon miracle.—Edna Lister, February 7, 1962.


Boredom is a curse, a lack of life, and the only way to open new channels of life is to be grateful for what you have.—Edna Lister, March 30, 1962.


Let gratitude be your keynote of love.—Edna Lister, March 31, 1962.


To attain the full heights of honor is to move up in consciousness on gratitude from early morning to night, thanking God for all small things as well as the great.—Edna Lister, Honor Above All, April 8, 1962.


Increase your faithfulness and praise. Stand unwavering in gratitude while declaring good. Your reward for such devotion, such worship, such love will be strength. You will be freed from doubt and all manners of uncertainties and confusion. You shall heal and be healed. You shall love enough to make possible all things through faith unconquerable.—Edna Lister, August 7, 1962.


Be constant in directing your vision and in expressing your gratitude.—Edna Lister, November 16, 1962. Increase your gratitude for blessings that God is already bestowing.—Edna Lister, November 29, 1962.


Hold your gains and rejoice. Without rejoicing, man is nothing, for gratitude is the first law of increase. All growth comes under the great law of appreciation, or gratitude. Gratitude and joy are the vibrations that keep one from slipping into the mud of self. You cannot rejoice if you are bound to the little self. To touch the vibration of praise, you move into the high principle of joy. To rejoice and be glad under all outer conditions is the one thing to work toward, because your declaration, “This is good,” must be born under the spirit of praise and devotion to God.—Edna Lister, December 13, 1962.


You can make everything that comes to you pay world dividends when you are grateful for being so used by the Light.—Edna Lister, February 1963.


It is not enough to just feel a sense of gratitude for certain things, while dwelling on the negatives, the lower vibration, doubting, being afraid and worrying. Under the surface, these things roll around. Only praise will open this subterranean stronghold from the past, and make it rise as mist before the sun. You need only to praise to lift and dissolve all this. With praise, all things are possible.—Edna Lister, July 28, 1963.


Praise in gratitude, rejoice in appreciation, give God the credit for holding you and setting all Power into motion to fulfill your needs and desires.—Edna Lister, February 9, 1964.


Praise and gratitude for a miracle brings it into outer manifestation. —Edna Lister, November 30, 1964.


Praise is the only thing that starts faith, the fuel on which you run. Praise is your eye salve. Eye trouble indicates a lack of appreciation and gratitude.—Edna Lister, May 13, 1965.


Maintain a soul vibration of praise and gratitude for the opportunity to be rebuilt and the ability to lend the self to the Power as an instrument.—Edna Lister, January 19, 1966.


While she was lifting her lines of Light, Edna Miriam suddenly saw that she had not supplied the praise and gratitude for those receiving the miracles. Little dark vacuums of ingratitude had formed, and like grapes of wrath, they made bitter the intended good. The way to lift them is to think for each, “I love You, Father. Father, I thank You.” If you love enough, spheres of golden Light fill all the auras of all the people you have lifted.—Edna Lister, May 23, 1966.


All that is required of you is praise and to look up, praise and thanks, praise and giving of thanks for everyone who is ungrateful—fill their lives.—Edna Lister, June 3, 1966.


Continue to count each miracle and blessing, for gratitude, appreciation and dedication in praise for the miracles bring more miracles.—Edna Lister, October 14, 1966.


You can always express greater rejoicing and gratitude, though it is only a “Thank You, Father!” You have no idea of the greatness of the Power it releases and the thankfulness, which makes up for the past as payments on what you owe. One day’s rejoicing earns new credits and pays for the old.—Edna Lister, February 16, 1967.


Use the words “gratitude,” “gracious” and “grateful” with others; it makes them aware. You can well up in gratitude only for what God has already given you.—Edna Lister, March 10, 1967.


Be grateful for what you have, but know that there is more where this came from. Be persistent, expect more, ever more. If you want health, think, speak, be grateful for and expect health. You, the Christed one, are unlimited and all-powerful. Your consciousness changes. You must continuously eliminate the old. If you hang onto it, it merges with the new and drags it down. Declare, “I AM a new creation in Christ. I AM what I really am. I AM upright, filled with inspiration.”—Edna Lister, March 13, 1968.

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Treatment for Gratitude

To treat for gratitude and awareness for yourself or others, broadcast, using the clockwise Rotary Treatment for Balance and Vigor: “Name, be aware! Be appreciative!”—Edna Lister, December 4, 1964.

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New Testament on Gratitude

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.—Philippians 4:4.


Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:6-7.


Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.—Philippians 4:8.


Rejoice evermore.—1 Thessalonians 5:16.


In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.—1 Thessalonians 5:18.


Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.—Colossians 3:12-14.


Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.—Colossians 3:17.


Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.—1 Peter 2:9.

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Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee forever.—Psalm 30:12.


It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.—Psalm 92:1.

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Edna Miriam Lister
1884—1971
The original Pioneering Mystic,
Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of gratitude: Latin gratitudo, “thankfulness,” from Latin gratus, “thankful, pleasing.”


Gratitude or being grateful is a law of being.

Expressing gratitude is a law of doing.

Gratitude is a soul virtue.

Gratitude is a Via Christa Degree.


References

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Ed., 2 vols. E.S.C. Weiner, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971.

Webster, Noah. “Gratitude.” Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: S. Converse, 1828.


Related Topics

Appreciation

Honor

Joy: Edna Lister outline; March 19, 1937.

Gratitude: Edna Lister sermon outline; November 21, 1937.

Count Your Blessings in Advance: Linda Mihalic sermon; October 20, 2004.