The Real Reason for Being Grateful

I’d like to say thanks again to all who spent time reading my Write 31 Days posts. I have never written fiction before and it was a fun experience!

My typical genre is non-fiction Christian living and encouraging believers to walk as we are called.

I took a break for a bit mainly because of the intensity of writing everyday for 31 days. I also was able to visit London with my husband and we’ve got holiday things happening, and I am dealing with sending my son abroad in January to Hillsong Leadership College in Australia.

As you can imagine, this mama’s heart is struggling between being so proud of my son and excited to launch him but also seriously saddened about the hole he will leave behind.

So, switching gears, the month of November is typically reserved for a focus on gratitude. I’d like to offer a slightly different perspective on gratitude.

I’d like to explore verses that speak about what happens when we are grateful. There are scriptures that give clear direction that if we have a mindset of thankfulness it changes our hearts and we receive blessings from God.

Let first look at Philippians 4:6-7, it says

 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Two big things I am going to highlight in this verse.

1) The command “Do Not” at the very beginning. When Christ      gives a command, we need to obey. 

It’s  not a suggestion, if we don’t then we are in sin.

2) You get the peace of God AFTER you do the first part. Do not be anxious, pray and be grateful.

So often we want the quick fix. We want to be able to ask God for peace, or worse we go out and try to find it in the world are then upset and lose faith when it doesn’t happen.

It’s time for us to take responsibility for our part in receiving that peace that we so desire.

Obedience and Thanksgiving unlocks our ability to receive with open hands God’s blessing and promise of peace.

We aren’t going to get this supernatural peace with closed, pouty fists wanting what we want and expecting more of it tomorrow.

We have so much to be grateful for! 

The blessings in this first-world, extravagant country we live in are sometimes embarrassing because of their lavishness.

• We forget to be grateful for running water, water heaters and unlimited sources of water.
• We forget to be grateful for isles and isles of choices at our grocery stores.
• We forget to be grateful for sunrises and sunsets.
• We forget to be grateful for coffee, ice cream and other indulgent treats.

Instead we build up entitlement ideas in our heads, we insist that we “need”. The reality is most people able to read this have phones, tablets or computers with internet. That alone is extravagant by the rest of the world’s standards. 

We don’t have that many real needs that we can’t just go fulfill on our own.

If you desire peace in your life, the peace that passes all understanding, reason and ability to fabricate, then you must learn gratitude.

I have made a gratefulness list in my journal and I continue to add to it. I read it when I am feeling selfish, self-centered, disappointed, down or sad, when I think I deserve something and especially when I get angry.

Considering God’s riches He bestows on us, there is no reason under heaven for us to refuse to be grateful.

When we express thankfulness, it changes our hearts. There’s something powerful about turning our thoughts from inward focus to outward gratitude. That is why God tells us to do it and then we’ll receive God’s peace that guards our hearts and minds.

Why would we need peace to guard our hearts?

Peace guards your heart from being ungrateful, and forgetting what God’s done for you. When you experience that supernatural peace, you don’t forget it, it marks you, it leaves a deposit so to speak.

The guarding of your heart is against sin, self-centeredness, pride of thinking you did it all on your own, and entitlement. 

When we receive this supernatural peace from God it enables or activates our ability to stay in that place of gratitude and selflessness because we have experienced His power.

I encourage you to take some time this week and make a gratitude list that you can reflect back on when times are hard or you know you’ve got a bad attitude about something.

Happiest of Thanksgivings to you all!  

Second Chances and New Resolve

(This is Day 31 in  write 31 days series. Click here for the title page )

Lisa and her husband stepped into the church office, both feeling very awkward and unsure.

Neither wanted to admit how much work they had to do to repair their marriage, but both had enough resolve to want to stay together. Their first step was to go see their pastor, and probably from there, go to counseling.

They loved each other and loved their children. Things had just been off kilter for a while and caused them to drift apart. They had allowed temptation and sin to come between them. It was time to rebuild and strengthen their relationship so this didn’t happen again.

Lisa was so encouraged that her husband had agreed with her that things weren’t going well and they’d better get help. That spoke volumes to her and showed her how much he cared.

They both listened intently as their pastor started speaking to them about what a Godly marriage looked like. He spoke about both of them working on their own relationships with the Lord so they were healthy and able to work on the marriage and family life together, that neither were meant to fill the other.

That was God’s job, theirs was surrender and obedience to the Lord.

By drifting away from the Lord and each other, it had created gaping holes of need in their lives. Their holes that they were seeking to fill could only be filled by the Lord.

Lisa left so grateful for second chances and the opportunity to fall in love with her husband and Jesus all over again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for following along on my first “Write 31 days” adventure!

My intention with this series was to open eyes to the attacks and deviousness of our enemy, Satan. When you think that bad things are happening, you feel thwarted, or you battle with the same issue over and over you might be dealing with an attack of the enemy!

Let me just tell you how difficult this became at times! Satan did not leave me alone, I dealt with my own temptations and struggles the whole way through. It seemed that he was not very happy with my attempt to uncover some of his schemes.

I persevered and drew on the Lord’s strength. I knew this was important and that God was going to speak to someone through it.

These three women in my story dealt with many feelings that they allowed to dictate outcomes in their lives.

Mary believed that where she was in life wasn’t the best outcome or future. The reality is that all life has seasons. When you are raising kids, your life goes through so many stages, especially when the kids require more of mom than they do of dad. Mary wished for a different lifestyle. She was not finding her contentment in the Lord and her satisfaction from worshiping Him in her life right where she was at. God’s calling for her life at that moment was to raise those kids and Mary needed to know that there was no higher calling, no greener grass waiting somewhere else. The temptation of a new man in her life comes in as being pseudo innocent and unassuming. Satan has the simplest of ways of infiltrating our psyche and thought processes. We MUST stay vigilant and recognize sin for what it is and choose to follow Christ each and every day.

Lisa was a different story. She and her husband both worked, and she consistently felt not good enough. She felt she had to prove herself every day, that her approval was wrapped up in achievement and her abilities. We are ALL good enough in Christ. He made us each unique and He loves us individually. God is able to provide us with everything we need to succeed in the life He placed us in, all we have to do is ask. We must move our selfish pride out of the way, choose surrender of self, and accept His best for our lives. Lisa also battled with a temptation of another man. Her marriage was missing strength in Christ, just as Mary’s did. Both spouses had a deficit and were not filling it with the things of Christ. When you find yourself in place of longing, emptiness and want, it is typically because you are not seeking Christ first and asking Him to fill your needs.

Anne’s fight was with identity. She struggled to overcome her past and chose to not follow in her parent’s examples. She also battled with an onslaught of thoughts and feelings that the enemy tried to bury her in. I am convinced that the hardest part of recovery for some is their thought life. Guilt, shame, remorse, regret and self-loathing all have the power to defeat and leave us in a place of soul desolation. We can appear put-together on the outside, but inside we anguish. There are 2 very important things we can do as Christians to overcome our battle in the mind. 1) Obey God when He says in 1 Corinthians 10:5 to capture every thought and bring it into obedience of Christ. 2) We have to surrender our weakness and desire to wallow in our pain. Its actually a form of pride and self-centeredness. It might not feel that way, but the attack focuses oneself completely on SELF. It’s hard and we must be diligent. I can speak from experience that it’s an each and every moment activity until you reach the point of overcoming. God will deliver you, it is in His will that you be free! You have to want it and you have to be faithful to obey and do it. It’s not a one time thing. It will be something you experience the rest of your life, but once you practice and know what to do, it will not be as difficult.

Thank you for reading this month, it was my pleasure to explore this and stick to writing for 31 days straight.

I’m planning on November’s blogs focusing on what the bible says about gratitude. It’s not your typical thanksgiving focus, it’s more about the promises God gives when we are grateful and what happens to change our hearts when we are grateful.

See you in November!