Hello Friends!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent time with your family and friends! My Thanksgiving was nice and it was also a time of reflection for me. Over the years, people have made November or Thanksgiving day to be the only time that we are thankful and according to God's word, He says differently. While we are to remember to be thankful and grateful for the different blessings God has given us, what about those days where it's hard to be thankful? You know those days where it seems like everything is going wrong and you are frustrated and angry because everything seems to be like sinking sand? Being thankful has a lot of benefits and I would like to share them with you, but before I do, do you have your cup of coffee or tea beside you? I am drinking caramel macchaito this morning and I must say, it's delicious! Let's begin!
So being thankful during those hard days or it may seem like hard years can be difficult, but possible. Now you may be saying, "Yeah, but you don't know what I have been going through, the last thing that I want to do is to be thankful?" "Why should I be thankful for the pain and suffering that I am going through?" I understand wholeheartedly, I know exactly what you are stating. Let's take a look at some people in the Bible who were thankful in the most critical and harsh circumstances. Jesus was a the table eating supper and He decided to bless His father during the meal. Now He knew what was waiting for Him once He left the table and He could have had a pity party and cried and told His disciples that He wasn't hungry and He wanted to be by Himself. He didn't, He blessed the Lord and thanked Him for the food that represented what He was going to go through. His disciples didn't know, but He knew.
Another example was Daniel in the lion's den. This was a righteous man and he was praying to God and someone tattled on him and according to the king's decree, he was thrown in the lion's den. Now you talk about some problems. We are not told how many lions were in there, we just know it was the lions den. I am sure they were hungry and if Daniel had not prayed to the Lord to shut the lion's mouths, they probably would have eaten him for a delicious meal. The Lord shut the lions mouths and they didn't eat Daniel, he stayed the night in the lions den and when he woke up the next morning, he was still alive. He praised God and thanked him, but while he was praising and thanking God, he was sill in the lions den. Did his circumstances change? No, he was still in the lions den, but God was on his side, God performed a miracle in the lions den by shutting the lions mouths. Once he thanked the Lord and praised him, the king came to check on him and saw that he was still alive and told the guards to release him. He was released and the troublemakers and tattletails were thrown in the lions den and the lions immediately ate them.
So you may be asking yourself, "What is the purpose of being thankful in my current circumstances and situations that I am facing?" The purpose is just like Jesus and Daniel, they both faced some pretty tough circumstances, but yet they thanked God. Now why should we be thankful in our trying circumstances and situations? For one, it gets our focus off of our problems and on to the Lord. When we focus too much on our problems, we start worshipping it as if it's too big for God. Another reason we should be thankful is it gives God space to come in to perform miracles in our lives just like Daniel in the lions den. God loves it when we are thankful and grateful, he doesn't like it when we complain. If you don't believe me, ask the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness with Moses. Their complaining made God angry and He sent fire to burn part of their tents. Numbers 11:1-3 Another reason we should be thankful is lifts the heaviness of our problems off our shoulders which is called depression. Wow, you don't have to take an antidepressant, just start being thankful and you won't be depressed!
The last reason of why we are to be thankful is we are giving glory to God and He shows us how blessed we really are. No you may not have a fancy house or car or the job that you want, but you are blessed. I look around me and see the blessings of God over and over again. While I was reflecting yesterday, I realized the blessings of my singleness. Since I am still single, I have the time to focus totally on God and my relationship with Him. I have the time to serve others and to learn from teaching children at work. I realized yesterday that child raising isn't easy and I am learning that from the bunch that I have this year. I am learning that children need a schedule and that it's better to stick to that schedule otherwise you are going to have fighting, arguing, room for disobedience. So God has blessed me through my singleness season by allowing me to focus on my relationship with Him and teaching me about how to raise children.
I am also blessed because I live with my family and I am learning to how to manage a home, time, and serving others. There are many things that God has blessed me with and lots of times, I am guilty of focusing on others and what they have that I don't. I am learning that by doing this, it's not being fair to God. He is the One that is writing my story and oftentimes, I want to take the pen and help Him out. I'm sure God would see that as an insult because after all, He is the One who created me. So friends, with that being said, we have lots of things to thankful for not just in November, not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day. God is good all the time not some of the time, all the time. Let's remember to give thanks to Him every day that He gives us because life is a gift from God and we should be thankful that He wakes us up in the mornings. I hope this has encouraged you and helped you today. May God bless you and keep you. Until next time!
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