Book Winner Announced! And a Thought You Need This Week.

 

Overwhelmed.  Discouraged. Angry. Confused. Anxious. Fearful. Stressed. Resentful.

These are a few of the labels I’ve heard women use when describing how they feel lately. Not all the time, mind you.  But more often than they’d like.

I feel them too, sometimes.  We all do. Seeing them in black and white is a wake up call. An alarm buzzing in my head, telling me life doesn’t have to be lived in the muck of these emotions. Especially since God’s Word says believers can be characterized by so much more.

Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control:  These are the gifts God desires to give us.

But how do we replace one set of characteristics with the other? How do we get to the other side when discouragement, anxiety or stress threatens to overtake us?

Sunday morning I drove to church feeling discouraged. JP had just returned from a weeklong trip to Haiti. Already battling chronic back pain caused by two major car accidents in the last eighteen months (neither his fault), he arrived home with one of the weirdest, most painful infections a person can get. I thought the Sunday worship service would surely alter my perspective.  Despite amazing worship and an even better message (which JP preached despite the pain), the feeling still lingered.

Alone in my car I started to complain, out loud to God. (I know, I know…I wrote a blog about complaining two weeks ago, but I’m a slow learner).  My complaints lasted a few minutes before God stopped me in my tracks.

Stop complaining and start thanking.

I didn’t feel like thanking.  I felt like complaining, but I made a choice to give thanks anyway.  Out loud, to God.

Because here’s the thing:  Complaining is usually:

1. Out Loud
2. Specific

So our thanks giving must be, too.

Often, when we try to replace complaining with thanking we’re too general (Thank you for my blessings) and usually it’s in our head.  Is it any wonder most of us aren’t transformed by the act of giving thanks?

So there in my car, driving down the freeway, I began thanking God out loud; not for general things in my life, but for specific things.

I wish you could have been there to witness the transformation of my heart.

I wish I could be there when it happens to you, too.

No wonder God tells us “To give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thes 5:18) (Note:  it doesn’t say give thanks for all circumstances, but in them).  I used to think this was God’s way of telling me to behave, shape up and quit whining.  Now I see it as God’s way—God’s will—for me to experience the joy He came to give me.

I’ve always thought of thanks as a gift I give to God. Now I realize it’s also a gift God gives to me.

So this week and next, as we celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, let’s do it up right.  Let’s give thanks out loud.  Let’s make our thanks specific.  It’s God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Congratulations to Clarice Dear, the lucky winner of Hoodwinked!!

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