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.