We know our bodies have daily nutrition and exercise requirements we should adhere to if we want to remain healthy. We don’t always understand that our souls have daily requirements as well if we want to remain strong in the Lord and walk faithfully in his good purpose for our lives.

If we want to care for our souls, we need to make gratitude for God a daily vitamin. We can’t praise God without taking time to think about who he is and all he has done. Those thoughts remind us that we serve a great and mighty God. 

The Jewish people were to begin and end their day with a prayer called the Shema. Taken from Deuteronomy 6:4–5, it says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” 

The psalmist wrote, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” 

If we all began and ended our day with thoughts of praise and gratitude to our Most High God, our souls would remain tethered to his steadfast love and faithfulness throughout the day.

The wisdom of the Shema wasn’t the result of repeating the words. Gratitude must come from genuine hearts so that our praise will strengthen our souls. We should declare our gratitude for God’s steadfast love and his faithfulness every day. 

Wisdom is offering our gratitude to God. Let’s begin and end each day with those words as a daily spiritual requirement. But let’s remember that unless our hearts are truly filled with sincere gratitude, we have only spoken words, not our thanksgiving. God desires us to truly praise him and remember all he has done for our souls.