{"id":2865,"date":"2023-03-31T15:13:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T15:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/?p=2865"},"modified":"2026-10-26T19:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T19:11:16","slug":"levels-of-gratitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/?p=2865","title":{"rendered":"Levels of Gratitude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>I Thessalonians 5:18, &#8220;In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than likely you have played some kind of video game. You might participate in a very casual manner or consider yourself a fanatic \u201cGamer.\u201d Regardless of the game, everyone starts off the same, then after reaching a certain amount of points or achieving the designated goals you are promoted to a new level of higher competition with more points to obtain and more prizes to cease. This structured hierarchy of progress is known as \u201clevelling up.\u201d When a player does reach the next level, they are generally rewarded with a stronger character that has new features or capabilities so as to help you reach the next level. As our Scripture text admonishes every Christian to \u201cadd to your faith\u201d God is telling us in modern terms to \u201cLevel Up\u201d in our Christian life! Let\u2019s consider some levels of gratitude.<br><br><strong>Level 1.<\/strong> Ingratitude or Being Ungrateful or not being thankful at all.<br>In Romans 1:21 we read, \u201cBecause that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful\u2026\u201d Ingratitude is the first step downward after refusing to live your life to the glory of God. Ingratitude is also a step toward Sodomy. Romans 1:24-28 goes on to say that these Bible rejecters go \u201cagainst nature\u201d as \u201cmen with men\u201d and women with women in relationships that are contrary to what God intended. Ingratitude is the first step toward gender identity problems. Be grateful for whatever gender God has made you. If you are a male, be thankful to God that He made you a male. If you are a female, be thankful to God that He made you a female. Be the best you can be of whatever gender God has made you, no matter how many people you encounter that are ungrateful for how God made them.<br><br><strong>Level 2.<\/strong> Grateful for what you Enjoy.<br>In John 6:24-27, Jesus pointed out to this crowd of followers that they were glad to follow Him, only because He had fed them so well.<br><br><strong>Level 3. <\/strong>Giving Thanks \u201cin all things\u201d I Thes. 5:18.<br>This is being grateful for certain things in life, even though your life may not be going so well.<br><br><strong>Level 4.<\/strong>  \u201cGiving thanks\u2026 for all things. \u201d Eph. 5:20B.<br>This is actually being thankful for the difficulties that come your way. This can be accomplished when we believe Romans 8:28.<br><br><strong>Level 5. <\/strong> \u201cGiving thanks always for all things\u201d Eph. 5:20A.<br>David said, \u201cI will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth\u201d Psa. 34:1. Gratitude is perhaps the greatest deterrent to a complaining attitude. Gratitude is one of the greatest factors for staying faithful to the Lord. What level of gratitude have you made it to?<br>Take the challenge to \u201cLevel Up\u201d in the area of Gratitude.<br>Pastor Dean DeMaris, Bible Baptist Church, Hazard, KY<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1021\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-1021x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6055\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.9970769011992605;width:193px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-1021x1024.jpeg 1021w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-768x770.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-1531x1536.jpeg 1531w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-600x602.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-100x100.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-75x75.jpeg 75w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-350x350.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-750x752.jpeg 750w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris-1140x1144.jpeg 1140w, https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/dean-demeris.jpeg 1611w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dean DeMaris | Pastor<br>Bible Baptist Church | Hazard, KY<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/p\/Bible-Baptist-Church-Hazard-61579002061574\/\">BibleBaptistChurchHazard-<\/a>Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Thessalonians 5:18, &#8220;In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.&#8221; More than likely you have played some kind of video game. You might participate in a very casual manner or consider yourself a fanatic \u201cGamer.\u201d Regardless of the game, everyone starts off the same, then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"no-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"0","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_food_recipe":[],"enable_food_recipe":"0","food_recipe_title":"","food_recipe_description":"","food_recipe_serve":"","food_recipe_time":"","food_recipe_prep":"","food_recipe_level":"","food_recipe_keywords":"","food_recipe_category":"","food_recipe_cuisine":"","food_recipe_yield":"","food_recipe_calories":"","enable_print_recipe":"0","ingredient":[{"item":""}],"instruction":"","jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_podcast_option":{"enable_podcast":"0","podcast_duration":"","upload":""},"jnews_podcast_series":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28,24],"tags":[1044,1084,180,691,500,54,317],"jnews-series":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-the-yp","category-youth-truth","category-yp-wife","tag-bible-baptist","tag-dean-demaris","tag-god","tag-gratitude","tag-thankfulness","tag-youthtruth","tag-yplife"],"featured_image_src":"","blog_images":{"medium":"","large":""},"ams_acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6061,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/6061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"jnews-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fjnews-series&post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}