Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving today, too. And tomorrow and Sunday and ….

1 Thessalonians 5:18, tells us to, “Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God.” Have you ever wondered why? What does God want to accomplish with this command? What does gratitude do? What does it change?

Human beings function best when they appreciate the good things they’ve been given.

The psalmists repeatedly tell us to “give thanks to the Lord for He is good.” They encourage us to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” to praise the name of God “with a song and magnify him with thanksgiving,” and to give thanks to him because “his love endures forever.”

There’s not much friction here. Most of us accept that God is good and deserves our praise, but might there be something more going on? Could it be that God instructs us to be grateful, not just because it pleases Him, but because there’s something in it for us? 

Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California and author of “Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier,” has discovered a strong correlation between gratitude and our physical, psychological, and social well-being. According to Emmons, grateful people tend to have stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure. They’re more alert, alive, and awake. They experience more joy, optimism, and happiness. They’re more likely to be generous, compassionate, forgiving, and helpful. It is indisputable, Emmons says, that human beings function best when they appreciate the good things they’ve been given.

Biblically, we know from a hundred different verses that gratitude is fundamental to who we are; that by God’s design we — as individuals and as communities — are created to pause and give thanks.

It brings us joy. And who doesn’t want to be more joyful? Who doesn’t want to spend their days in the company of friends who love their lives and who are perfectly content with where they live and what they have? 

The burning question, then, is: How do we become more grateful? Emmons urges us to keep a gratitude journal. By simply jotting down five things a week we’re grateful for, the researcher says, we’ll see the gifts in our lives “as new and exciting.” We’ll take less for granted, he says, which will leave less room in our finite minds for things like resentment and envy.

Christian author Ann Voskamp describes what happened in a town where residents accepted Emmons’ challenge. Nearly everyone, she reported, found that “giving thanks and giving back are Siamese twins; they move as one.” Town-wide, “gratitude interventions” renewed hearts and minds, which transformed the character of life in this community.

People in pews and checkout lines, Voskamp said, made it their mission to find the good. And before long the town came to a common epiphany: Their friends seemed less selfish and not nearly so greedy. It seemed as though neighbors suddenly became more trusting and eager to forgive. Gratitude, these folks discovered, caused their community to flourish.

We can’t banish darkness from our fallen world. But we can fix our minds on the fact that, “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

Gratitude won’t reverse the effects of mankind’s fall. No matter how often we say thank you, there will still be evil in the world. There will still be marriage problems and financial woes and disease and disappointment and death. We can’t banish darkness from our fallen world. But we can fix our minds on the fact that, “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). And by our gratitude, we can magnify the light, and thereby crowd out the darkness.

Voskamp makes the point that when we give undue attention to the dark, we give undue praise to the devil. When we focus on the dark, she says, we make darkness seem stronger than light. We see it every day, don’t we — how cable news and social media thrive by casting shadows over the goodness we’ve been given? That’s why Voskamp believes, “Now is precisely the right time for a radical rising of gratitude.” Grateful people, she says, aren’t angry or bitter. They are, instead, at peace, reveling in the world’s abundance. They radiate goodness, she continues, and goodness breathes life into souls and cities, thereby revealing the presence and grace of God.

We tend to think that joy leads to gratitude. But Scripture — and even secular research — affirms that it works the other way around. It isn’t joy that makes us grateful; it’s gratitude that brings us joy. Gratitude, even in lousy circumstances, Voskamp has found, can heal us and hearten us as much as a change to those circumstances.

So, give thanks today, too. And tomorrow. It’ll make you happy.