Getting Thankful

During this time of the year, we are reminded that we need to be thankful.

If you are one of those having a hard time finding things to be thankful for, I am writing this for you.

There have been so many times I have struggled to be thankful. I would look at my possessions, the state of my relationships, my account balance, or my overall circumstance and find it difficult to be thankful.

For many, this probably sounds all too familiar.

I used to operate on the premise that good Christians were supposed to look at their circumstances, regardless of how good or bad they were, and say thanks to God. Most of the time, I would offer a half-hearted, "thanks". The same kind of "thanks" we force our kids to say when they get socks or a sweater from Grandma for their birthday.

God isn't asking us to fake it.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 it says, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 

This verse seems so impossible to live out, but stay with me here.

In Psalms 107:1 it says, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"

When we read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, in light of Psalms 107:1, things start to come a little more into focus.

The verse in Thessalonians ends with, in Christ Jesus; and the passage in Psalms says to give thanks to God, because He is good.

Look carefully at these.

It doesn't say, rejoice for Christ Jesus. He isn't asking us to perform for Him. It says rejoice, pray, and give thanks because that is God's will for us, as we live in Him.

It doesn't say give thanks to God because you are popular and rich. It says give thanks because God is good.

We need to turn our focus away from what we possess, and choose to remember what we have. We may not possess everything we want, but we have the love of God.

So when Paul and David write, rejoice all the time, pray all the time, give God thanks; what are they saying? They are saying, stay focused on, and in communication with God.

When we focus on God, we are reminded of how much we have to be thankful for.

So wherever you may be today, whatever you have or don't have, remember to spend some time with God. Nothing works better than God's presence, when we need help getting thankful.

Even In The Good Ones

I got a new dog this week.

Like all new things that come into my life, they cause me to think and reflect.

My dogs name is Lola. She is half German Shepard, and half Black Lab. She is beautiful, kind, and smart. She is also a puppy. So we are in the training phase of our relationship.

As far as personalities go, I may not be the best for training dogs. I tend to read quite a bit into the looks she gives, and think about how this training might make her feel. Yet, we are still working our way through it. I am determined to help Lola become a well trained dog.

As much as many of us may not like this comparison, people, are in large part a product of their training.

This is becoming painfully clear for me at this current time in my life.

Sometimes training looks like positive affirmation when we do something right; but it can also look like being ignored so many times, that we stop trying to get people's attention. It may even look like a negative attitude, because even if things are good now, they will surely be turning sour soon.

We don't really think about how we have been trained, it just becomes the way we live, the way we are.

It doesn't have to stay that way.

In my current season of life, Treasa and I are experiencing blessing like we never have before. We are in a beautiful home, we have cars that start every time you turn the key, and our kids are happy and healthy. We also love the church we are a part of, and they frequently express their love for us in return.

The strange thing is, I don't really know how to act in this season. It seems that most seasons of our life have been littered with hard times and hurt. So, I know how to keep my guard up and how to press through difficult times. I know how to keep my nose to the grindstone hoping that someday my hard work will pay off.

I don't however, know how to receive random acts of kindness.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1 it says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens" It goes on for the rest of the chapter to explain there are many types of seasons. There are seasons of death, life, healing, building, laughing, dancing, war and peace.

Which brings me to this thought. If life is just going to roll through all these different seasons, what am I supposed to do with that?

One constant I find, whether in times of blessing, or times of difficulty, is the overwhelming love of God. He is always drawing me to Him; either through His Word, or by His Spirit, He expresses a desire to be close to me.

Seasons come and go, but God never changes, never ceases in His love for us.

So wherever you may be today, whatever you may be walking through, know that I, and others who love you, are praying for you. I am praying that you would draw close to Jesus.

As we are close to Him, we become more like Him. He can retrain our heart to trust, retrain our minds to be creative, and retrain us to desire to connect with others.

God is able to help us walk through all seasons of life, even in the good ones.

Changed Not Distracted

It is a peculiar thing, just how sticky words can be.

At times I can be walking through my day, and something ugly that was said to me comes rushing back from my memory. I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is a terrible surprise; and it is hard to know what to do in those moments.

I used to use the method of thought distraction. Whenever a thought of failure or hurt came to mind, I would distract myself by doing something else. I would turn on some music, watch a movie, play a video game, or just go do something else. I didn't like the way it made me feel, so I would drown it out, and eventually redirect my focus elsewhere.

This tactic worked for a while, sort of.

One day, I realized I was distracting myself full time. The thoughts that I wanted to avoid had pilled up so high, they had consumed me. I was having to keep myself so busy, so consumed with activity just to keep my mind free.

But my mind wasn't free.

I had gone to God's Word many times to find help. Nothing seemed to work.

There was a verse I had read quite a few times before, but this time it was different. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

On this day, as I read this verse, one word jumped off the page. Captive. I began to think about this word; then I began to think about it, in context of the verse.

I am supposed to take my thoughts captive.  

This verse doesn't say distract yourself, it doesn't say just forget about it and move on. It says take the thought captive, make it your prisoner. I hold the key, I choose whether or not it is let out.

This revelation changed my thought life.

In addition, I was to do more than just take these ugly thoughts, and throw them in their cell. They also needed to be made obedient to Christ.

So if the ugly thought consuming my mind were, "I have no worth", I would take that thought, and hold it beside what Christ says about my worth. In 1 John 3:16a it says, "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. 

Christ saw so much worth in me, that He chose to lay down His life for me. In light of this, I know, the thought that was tearing me up inside, the thought of, "I have no worth" is a lie.

So don't drown out your thoughts, or distract yourself to avoid them. Don't believe that you should just move on. Rather, take these thoughts captive, smack them around a little, and throw them in their cell.

Then let the light of Christ show you, just how wrong they are.