Christian ministry can be glorious. But let’s face it—ministry can also be hard. If you’re not careful, a challenging season of ministry can take a serious emotional, relational, and spiritual toll on your life.
Some of us spend so much of ourselves trying to be “on” at church that when we get home at the end of a long day, we become a person we don’t want to be—depressed, frustrated, self-pitying, lethargic—and our loved ones see it. They often witness what others don’t.
Such seasons can leave many of us asking: What can be done to counteract the painful, sometimes debilitating effects of the work God has called me to do? I don’t want it to be this way. Is there anything I can actually do to change?
Thankfully, we’re not left without answers. The Spirit of God has seen to it that there’s a treasury of precious resources available to us in the pages of Scripture. Many saints throughout history have discovered that one of these resources—which is indispensable—is a practice of gratitude.
An Indispensable Key
Consider Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:11–12, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Paul understood that serving the Lord requires endurance because it can be hard. There are crises, controversies, conflicts, and criticisms along the way that can make the work of the Kingdom quite painful. Many in ministry have felt the way George Herbert did when he wrote, “Have I no harvest but a thorn?”[1]
Ministry also requires patience because it can take a long time to see the fruit of your labor. Most often, the Kingdom’s effects are hidden and gradual, not big and splashy (Matt. 13:33).
But Paul also understood that you can endure and be patient in a way that is essentially joyless. It is possible to endure something with white knuckles and a bad attitude. It is possible for patience to curdle into pessimism when it takes a long time to see a good thing come. This is why Paul prays for the Colossians to have endurance and patience mixed with joy.
Yet how can we experience joy in the midst of the pain and waiting that so often accompany our ministry? Paul’s answer is clear: by giving thanks to the Father. In other words, gratitude is one indispensable key to a ministry that remains joyful through each season.
Of course, our track record with gratitude isn’t what makes us pleasing to the Father. Remember what Paul says: God has qualified us (Col. 1:12). By grace, He has made us acceptable and equipped to receive every spiritual blessing that has come and is coming to His people in Christ. We must therefore never treat gratitude as a prerequisite for acceptance with God, but as a consequence of that acceptance.
Cultivating Gratitude in Ministry
Knowing that God has thus qualified and accepted us, how does gratitude actually work? How do we cultivate it when our souls are weary and our circumstances are hard? Three observations can help God’s servants to cultivate gratitude:
1. Gratitude Is a Decision
This reality breaks the false assumption that joy and gratitude are strictly emotional. They can be, but they don’t have to start there. You don’t always have to feel grateful before you can be grateful. There is nothing inauthentic about choosing to give thanks even when your most prominent feeling is pain. Choosing to be thankful grounds our attitude and outlook in agency and responsibility, not mood-chasing.
2. Gratitude is Built Through Practice
Learn a habit of slowing down your mind, paying attention to the graces of life, and openly expressing gratitude with words of thanksgiving. Embracing these simple acts will build the habit and reflex of thanksgiving over grumbling. Christian philosopher Kent Dunnington elaborates, “Gratitude begins by acting and speaking. Acting and speaking, more than feeling, are the favorable responses called for by God’s gifts. Of course, feelings will show up too, but they ought not be the focus if we hope to grow in gratitude to God.”[2]
Human beings are designed such that the things we do have a way of doing something to us. Before gratitude can be spontaneous, it will need to be intentionally practiced through speech and action. No one learns to shoot an effective jump shot or play a difficult piece of music without practice. The same is true of gratitude.
The psalmists’ examples are often challenging for us. For instance, it says in Psalm 138, “I give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.” This kind of wholehearted overflow can seem impossibly distant when you’re just beginning to practice. But the psalmists aren’t describing a feeling you must have before you start. They’re describing where practice is meant to lead.
3. Gratitude Can Affect Culture
A pastor or ministry leader who practices gratitude doesn’t only foster their own joy. They also influence the culture of their ministry environment. When an elder meeting or staff planning session is marked by genuine thanksgiving, it changes the vibe in the room. When your family sees you choosing gratitude even in the midst of difficulty, they learn that it’s possible to have joy so real that it transcends circumstances. Your grateful practice becomes permission and pattern for others.
In fact, it is the very pattern of Jesus himself. Our Savior had a perfect track record of grateful, joy-filled ministry. Though he was the Man of Sorrows, suffering deeply throughout His earthly days, He also decided to be grateful and expressed it outwardly (Matt. 11:25–26).
Even as the world rejected him and the horrors of crucifixion loomed ahead of him, Jesus modeled a ministry marked by genuine gratitude and joy. His human soul never once failed to overflow with thanksgiving. Part of following Jesus and ministering in His name means that our souls learn to overflow with gratitude by the power of His Spirit working within us.
What are you grateful for? Stop and ponder that question. Invite the Lord to commune with you as you ponder it. Write down whatever He brings to mind. Tell someone else—a friend, your spouse, a fellow church member—what you’re thankful for. Do whatever you can to more fully learn the way of gratitude, because, let’s face it, Christian ministry can be hard. And you need as much joy as you can get.
[1] See Stephen Witmer, In All Things Thee to See: A Devotional Guide to Selected Poems of George Herbert (Crossway, 2026), 76.
[2] Kent Dunnington, Gratitude to God: The Heart of Christian Formation (Baker, 2026), 203.