The Easy-Hard Gratitude Journal: A Spiritual Exercise
- RD Montgomery
- Nov 23
- 5 min read
One of the things I have learned following Christ is that sometimes we need an exercise to help us train our hearts and minds. About four years ago, the Holy Spirit laid a lesson on my heart to create a different kind of gratitude journal. The instruction I received was to take the standard gratitude journal and add a second entry that challenged me to be grateful for something difficult.
Where to start
The format of your gratitude journal is up to you. You can write it on paper or use a digital app. The important part is that you create two entries per day.
The First Entry of your Gratitude Journal: The "Easy" One
The first entry is the standard approach to gratitude journaling. You are writing a praise prayer to God for the things He does for you. You might start it with "Thank You For:" or "I Praise You For:".
The benefit of this first entry alone is awesome. It helps expand your awareness of both the little and big ways God is working in your life, reminding you of His love. It teaches you to see your life from a perspective of abundance, and it reduces stress and anxiety.
Here is a sample of what I might write about the last hour or so:
As you can see, my style is conversational. If it had been a full entry and I had started in the morning, it might have begun with thanking Him for having a restful night of sleep.
The Second Entry of your Gratitude Journal: The "Hard" One
The first entry helps train us to stop taking God for granted. The second teaches us a better way to react in tough situations. Being grateful for difficult things does not mean ignoring the possible painful implications of them; it means seeing them from a new perspective. Imagine thanking God for:
Being stuck in heavy traffic.
Dealing with a difficult customer service person.
A sudden, expensive repair not in your budget.
Feeling denied the respect you have earned.
Being falsely imprisoned.
Having cancer.
Counting trials as joy (James 1:2) is a difficult passage to apply. We tend to focus on how things affect our immediate comfort. For example, we might love the breeze at a picnic but view the ants in the potato salad as an attack on our experience. We might say, "I hate ants!"
But if you are forced to write an entry about why you are grateful for the ants, you might realize their important role in nature or be reminded that the best isn't here yet; the best is yet to come.
What if you were going to write about being falsely imprisoned?
Imagine for a moment that you have been arrested for a crime you didn’t commit. But instead of a cell, you are placed under house arrest. You are allowed to stay in a rented room, but there is a catch: you are chained by the wrist to a guard 24 hours a day.
You have no privacy. Every meal, every nap, every conversation is watched by a soldier who represents the very empire that took your freedom. There is no release date on the calendar.
In that situation, where does your mind go?
It would be natural to ask: "Why me? Why is God letting this happen?" It would also be normal to be unpleasant to the guards and to write letters seeking help from anyone who will listen.
But the Apostle Paul shows us a different way. When he wrote the book of Philippians from this exact situation in Rome, he didn't ask, "Why me?" He looked to see how God was using his predicament.
In Philippians 1:12–14, Paul writes to his friends to explain that his imprisonment had actually served to advance the Gospel. He realized that being chained up gave him a captive audience. The elite Roman guards—men who would naturally avoid going anywhere where the Gospel is being preached—were suddenly stuck listening to Paul talk about Jesus. Paul was able to be grateful in a terrible situation because he saw the bigger picture: his chains were the reason the palace guard was hearing the message of hope.
Paul had already learned the lesson that this journaling exercise should help teach us. Instead of immediately focusing on ourselves in bad times, we need to focus on God. This is important because it changes our reaction. Paul’s guards would have expected him to be mad or depressed, but they were watching him pray, worship God, and minister to the churches he helped plant. In addition, Paul was able to rest in the peace that God was in control.
Finding the good in cancer?
A fellow Christ-follower facing cancer recently expressed this spiritual benefit: he found that his illness, when shared, cuts out all the other noise and gives him a genuine opportunity to talk about God. His grace in tough times is so unusual, people notice and God gets the glory.
When you use this journal to find gratitude in the hard things, you transform a moment of anxiety into a sacrifice of praise, shifting your focus from the problem to the Provider. This discipline provides a concrete way to live out Philippians 4:6–7:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The result is a profound, unshakeable peace rooted in the enduring faithfulness of God, which serves as a powerful witness to others.
Need a little help getting started?
Sometimes getting into the flow of something new is the hardest part. Here are a couple of easy and researchable entries to get you pointed in the right direction:
In each of these entries, both the easy and hard I want you to use whatever you can to build up what you write. If you want to look at pictures of a vacation during your favorite season, go ahead. Use Google on any of them, especially the benefits of animals that scare you or the importance of the season you dislike.
First day:
The Easy: Write everything you can think of about a specific animal you love or admire.
The Hard: Write about a specific animal that might scare you.
Second day:
The Easy: Write about your favorite season (e.g., Summer, Winter, Spring, or Autumn).
The Hard: Write about your least favorite season.
Walking in Victory
We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are not victims of circumstances. We are more than conquerors. If you are ready to take your next step in spiritual maturity and face your good and bad moments with praise and dignity, I encourage you to start this journaling exercise right away.
Scripture used or considered in the writing of: "The Easy-Hard Gratitude Journey: A Spiritual Exercise" by RD Montgomery. All Scripture quoted is in ESV format unless otherwise specified.
Genesis 50:20 – God intending harm for good (Joseph's Example).
Psalm 34:1 – Blessing the Lord at all times.
Matthew 5:11-12 – Rejoicing when falsely accused or insulted.
Luke 22:19-34 – Jesus knowing how bad things would get and still submitting to God's will.
Acts 9:16 – God revealing that Paul would suffer for His name.
Acts 16:19-34 – Paul and Silas singing hymns in prison; the jailer’s conversion.
Romans 8:28 – God working all things for the good of those who love Him.
Romans 8:37 – We are more than conquerors.
2 Corinthians 4:17 – Our troubles achieving an eternal glory.
2 Corinthians 6:18 – Our identity as sons and daughters.
Philippians 1:12–14 – Paul’s imprisonment advancing the Gospel.
Philippians 4:6–7 – Replacing anxiety with prayer and thanksgiving.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Giving thanks in all circumstances.
Hebrews 13:15 – Offering a sacrifice of praise.
James 1:2 – Counting it all joy when we meet trials.
1 Peter 2:19-20 – The commendation of enduring suffering for doing good.
1 Peter 4:16 – Glorifying God in the midst of suffering as a Christian.
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