See Yourself a Sinner and You Will be Thankful!

Here is Thomas Watson's suggestion on how believers can exercise thankfulness (The Godly Man's Picture, p.138:

"Question: What shall we do to be thankful?

Answer I: If you wish to be thankful, get a heart deeply humbled with the sense of your own vileness. A broken heart is the best pipe to sound forth God's praise. He who studies his sins wonders that he has anything and that God should shine in such a dunghill: 'Who was before blasphemer, and a persecutor, but I obtained mercy' (I Tim. 1:13). How thankful Paul was! How he trumpeted forth free grace! A proud man will never be thankful. He looks on all his mercies as either of his own procuring or deserving. If he has an estate, this he has got by his wits and industry, not considering that scripture, 'Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth' (Deut. 8:18). Pride stops the current of gratitude. O Christian, think of your unworthiness; see yourself the least of saints and the chief of sinners, and then you will be thankful.