Watch it Grow

 

At a recent Ladies Conference held here in the NT, I was blessed to be able to speak to a group of ladies on the subject of Gratitude.

It was so exciting to share with them how thankfulness should be a part of our Christian walk.

I was able to encourage the ladies to start keeping a gratitude journal to record daily the things they were thankful for.

I have been doing this consistently for almost 6 months now and it has made such a difference to my outlook on life.

I won’t go into depth on my lesson in this post, but I wanted to share with you something that I have noticed over the past few months while keeping record of my blessings.

Yesterday, it was one of those days. Now, if you’re a woman, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And if you happen to be in your mid-forties, you’ll REALLY know what I’m talking about.

Hormones. Those darling little things that have the tendency to overwhelm your days and fill your nights with restless sleep.

Yesterday was a struggle. To put it simply, I had a little meltdown. Tears. Frustration. Confusion. Pity. Anger. Sadness. Hurt. I dealt with it all.

As I sat hunched over my desk, longing to read the precious promises found in God’s Word, desiring to pray and cry out for help, but unable to do so because of my emotional low, I let worship music play into my ears and into my soul.

I let the words of the songs sink into my mind and heart, soaking in the messages I heard. Words of comfort. Words of hope. Words of peace.

Slowly, I began to find healing. I began to respond in my heart with worship to God. As my tears flowed, my mind was calmed. My soul was soothed.

Yes, the problems that had possibly helped send me into a spiral were still present. The chaos still reigned, but God had stilled my heart. God had calmed the storm that raged inside me.

Now, I am not telling you this just to get it all out there. No. I want to share with you something interesting.

Since keeping a gratitude journal these past months, I have noticed that on the days where I am at my worst, the days where everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. On the days where I feel like there shouldn’t be anything to be thankful for, I find myself madly scribbling down one blessing after another.

Instead of scratching my head, trying to think of a grateful moment, I am left with so many things to thank God for that my heart overflows.

Why is it that out of suffering, God brings to mind his goodness and we begin to see his hand in all that is happening?

The Bible tells us to ‘give thanks in everything’ (1 Thess. 5:18), and that means training my heart to respond to ALL circumstances with a thankful spirit.

When we have those hard days, it seems we have even more to be thankful for, because we realise all that God has kept us from or all that he has blessed us with, despite our difficult time.

We can look back and see how he helped us through, we can see how he walked with us through our trial, gently leading us through the shadows and into the light.

We can see how he used people in our lives to uphold us in prayer and support us with words of encouragement and shared verses of Scripture, or a shoulder to cry on.

We can see how he used the words of a song to speak to us and calm us.

When we begin to thank God for all he has done for us and speak words of praise to him, it has the power to lift that spirit of heaviness that sometimes weighs us down.

Keeping a record of God’s goodness to you is a beautiful way to recognize all we receive from him, acknowledge God as the ultimate giver of every good gift and express appreciation to him for those things.

You can’t worship without thankfulness.

True worship comes from a deep well of gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can have abundant life now and in eternity.

True worship is God-centred. It is done properly when our heart and attitude is in the right place.

True worship flows from a grateful heart.

All that we are and have, responding to all that he is.  

So, although we may have hard days and life is often a struggle, we know that not only do we have God walking beside us, each step of the way, we also have so much to be thankful for.

If we can take the time to look at our burdens from the flip side, changing our perspective, we will see the blessings hiding underneath.

True gratitude is more than pretty journals and nice, well-written thank you cards. True gratitude involves an attitude change. It’s a heart change.

Or as one writer put it, a ‘gratitudinal change’.

Can I encourage you to make the choice to give thanks to God daily for all he has done and is doing for you?

Take a few minutes every morning or evening to write down 3 things that you can give God thanks for.

Do it every day.

Watch your list grow and watch your joy level rise!

 

Psalm 100:1-5

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

 

 

 

 

 

The Worry Box that has a Flip Side

Does anyone else have a worry box? No? Well, allow me to explain.

About 3 years ago, I came across an idea that I decided to put into practice in my life. The idea was this.

Get yourself a small box of some sort. It could be a jewellery box or a trinket box or simply a small Tupperware container. The box is not important.

Each time you feel yourself worrying over some issue, take a small post it or a slip of paper, and write your worry down on it along with the date.

Be as specific or as general as you like, but make sure you understand what you’ve written, for future reference.

After you’ve written your worry down, hold the piece of paper in your hand, and stop for a moment, taking time to pray over it, asking God to take your worry, your anxiety, your fear, casting all your care on him and then simply LET IT GO. Drop it into your box and close it up.

Now, the difficult part. Try not to let your thoughts stray back to that particular worry. It’s been given to God. You don’t need to take it back.

What I find is that as I write down one worry, another springs to mind, and then another and another. And pretty soon, I’ve written and prayed over more worries than I anticipated.

I’m so glad God is big enough to carry all my burdens. And yours too. He doesn’t have to put down mine, in order to pick up yours. He can hold them all.

Psalm 55:22 - Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

1 Peter 5:7 - Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

There are countless verses in Scripture that teach us to give God our worries.

Over and over, we read of God’s promises to us as we put our faith and trust in him.

God promises rest for your soul- Matthew 11:28-30

God promises to guard/keep your heart and mind -Philippians 4:6-7

God promises to be a firm foundation-Psalm 61:2

God promises peace-John 14:27

God promises never to leave you- Deuteronomy 31:8 

God promises to uphold you- Isaiah 41:10 

God promises to renew your strength- Isaiah 40:31

For me, the tangible, visibleness of an actual box, with actual slips of paper in it, is a reminder to me of God’s goodness to me and his ability to keep his promises.

And the act of physically letting go of the slip of paper, letting it drop into the box, helps me to visualize handing it over to God. Opening my hand and letting go.

I haven’t written many down of late, and not because I haven’t had any worries, but simply because the box was in a less prominent place and had become forgotten. Which has now been remedied!

But tonight as I sat at my desk going through emails and doing paperwork for our business, the thoughts began to creep in and fears started swirling around my head, threatening to overwhelm me. And God, in his goodness, brought my little box back to mind.

As I reached for it and slid back the clasp, opening it to reveal a myriad of multi-coloured post its, I began to casually pick up a slip at a time and read what was written. Reading over my worries didn’t cause anxiety, they caused a heart of worship and praise to rise within me as I rejoiced at God’s answers to my prayers.

There were so many worries I had written down, that God had miraculously come through and answered.

From concerns over finances, to knowing whether to sell our house, to worries over new grandbabies being added to the family and whether or not my daughters could cope with the added stresses, to a very scary and very real battle with cancer that our oldest daughter had to face, to my increased workload due to our business growing, and then the fears when it all fell apart and we were faced with months of uncertainty.

One after the other, I praised God for the blessings he had showered upon me and my family and the answers he had given and the grace he had shown in abundance.

I’m beginning to think that my little ‘worry’ box should also be called a ‘praise’ box!

(And yes, I did add quite a few to its contents, praying over them as I went.)

Not only do I need to bring my cares to Jesus and lay them at his feet, but I also need to come back and praise him for his answers.

Ephesians 5:20 - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Psalm 34:1 -I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Don’t forget to thank God for his goodness to you.

We all have worries. We all have anxieties. We all have fears. We all struggle with peace. We all struggle with feeling overwhelmed.

We are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace and find the help we need.

Hebrews 4:16 - Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

What a blessing it is to know that we can come boldly to the throne. We don’t need to be intimidated by what in ancient times was considered a forbidding place of sovereign authority and judgment. No, we are able to approach the throne boldly, at any time, with any worry or care, with fearless confidence knowing that we will be welcomed by our Saviour.

As his children, we are welcome any time. There is never a time his arms are not open wide, waiting for us to come and receive comfort and assurance.

If you’re worries are getting you down, if you’re struggling with your thoughts and you can’t seem to let go of something, try making yourself a ‘worry/praise’ box.

When the worries hit hard, write them down. Drop them in. Let them go.

Then periodically, go back over them and spend time praising God for his wonderful grace, love and mercy.

Replace your worry with prayer. Make the decision to pray whenever you catch yourself worrying.

Yesterday is too heavy. Lay it down. Today is too difficult. Lay it down. Tomorrow is too unknown and fearful. Lay it down. Give it to the Lord.

Give your cares to him through prayer and make sure you pair it with thanksgiving and the peace of God will wash over you and will keep you.

Philippians 4:6-7 KJV - Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

Turn your worry box into a praise box!