OK, behind again. I have been doing my study but not blogging on it. I am beginning to think I am not really that great at this blogging thing. My goal this week is to get 4 of my 7 days blogged. You can hold me to that and help keep me accountable. I think and process so much better with a keyboard than with a pen and paper. Does that seem weird to anyone else but me? I just know that when I sit and type it seems I can process a lot faster than writing and thus my processes go farther and more in depth. With writing my brain gets ahead of my hand and by the time I catch up, I have lost the thought.
Here goes,
Day 7: Healing Gratitude (Luke 17:11-15) This is the healing of the 10 lepers. The author points out how the one Samaritan leper came back thanking Jesus in a loud voice. We are often loud to voice our complaints about anything and everything to anyone, but how quick are we to loudly thank people and God for what they have done for us. When you have been giving a blessing how quick are you to voice your thanks to God in front of others? The 2nd thing she notices about the leper is that he came back to thank Jesus "from a distance". Oh, we stop and thank people as we go, but how often do we go out of our way to show our thanks? I thank God today for giving me a sympathetic husband, who allowed me the time away from the kids to take a nap. Even after I was the one who spent the last two days/nights scrap booking until 1 am.
Day 8: Gratitude and Humility (James 4:6-10) v10 says Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. "Humble people are wrapped up in Christ....A humble person does not feel entitled to have more, or for life to by easy or for everyone to love and treat him well. He is grateful for the least little kindness that is extended him, knowing it is more than he deserves." (taken straight from Nancy's Day 8 devotional in Choosing Gratitude). It is just that simple. Prideful people think they deserve better, so they complain and are ungrateful when things get tough. Humble people realize they don't deserve a thing, and so recognize the smallest things to be thankful for. This really hit me hard. I know I can do my fair share of complaining (wanting the camera I have been waiting on for 2 years, too much laundry, not enough sleep, too many dishes, kids never picking up their toys, not having skinny legs, pimples on my face...Buckets! As I write this list, I realize just how much complaining I do.), but I never considered whining an act of pride. When I look at it this way, I realize that is what it truly is. As I sat and prayed to God, confessing my pride in these issues, I literally had tears come to my eyes. I asked him to make me thankful for the laundry, for that meant I had the money to clothe my children. Thankful for the dishes because that meant I had food to feed my family and thankful for a dishwasher! Thankful for toys on my floor because happy children were playing with them and loving family and friends had given them those toys. I am still working on a thankful angle to the pimples....maybe that I have makeup to cover them? Anyway, there is a positive spin to any negative and I pray that God will help me start to see that before I complain next time.
Day 9: Gratitude and Generosity (2 Corinthians 9:6-15) God loves a cheerful giver (v7b). If you aren't thankful for what you have, how can you give it away? This is the question that came to me while going through this devotional that day. If you don't recognize that you are blessed beyond belief, how can you pass blessing onto others? Oh yes, many people do good things for others out of obligation or guilt, but God loves a cheerful giver. It doesn't say God obligates you to give. I think you do have to be thankful in order to cheerfully give. How can you pay it forward today?
Day 10: Invisible Blessings (1 Corinthians 2:6-11) Being thankful for what we don't have. Now here is an area of thankfulness I don't often dive into. And if I do, I often feel guilty about it because it is lieu of seeing someone have something I wouldn't want to deal with. i.e. "I am so thankful my children are healthy" as a prayer after finding out an old co-worker's daughter was just found with an inoperable brain tumor. Or, "Thank you, God for blessing me with a good vehicle" after driving by someone with smoke coming out of their car. But truly, there are so many more things we can stop to thank Him for when we think of all the trials we don't have to face. My husband has great job security. I don't think I have ever stopped to thank Him for that. I live in a small town where I don't have to worry about much violence or crime. Thank you, Lord. I have never had a close family member in the throws of a life-threatening illness or cancer. Thank you, Lord. My basement has never flooded. Thank you, Lord. There are so many more things to be thankful that I don't have to deal with. Is it wrong of me to feel a little 'worried' now that some of these things might happen to me. Kind of like jinxing yourself? I guess "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself" (Matthew 6:34). Whatever God brings me I will learn to thank Him for it.
Day 11: The Greatest Gift of All (Romans 5:1-11) Romans is probably my favorite book of the Bible because it reminds me of how much God has given us and is just such a great book on how to be the kind of Christian Jesus calls us to be. Vs 3-5 say "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. Nancy talks in this chapter how time can begin to dull or appreciation of that wonderful gift of salvation. This should be the thing we are most thankful for each and every day, but how often does it just get put on the short list of things we thank Him for daily? Start today and everyday with the true heartfelt thanks He deserves for His demonstration of love for us is this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (vs. 8)
Day 12: Gratitude You Can Feel (3 John 1-4) Today, Nancy tells us of a number of psychological studies that have been done to prove the health benefits of gratitude. Did you know thankful people are, in general, more healthy and happy with their lives than those who are more prone to complaining? What a great benefit to being thankful!
Day 13: Gratitude from Ground Zero (Psalm 43:1-5) "Resolve not to let you joy level be determined by the presence of absence of storms, but by the presence of God. Choose to be joyful in Him today." (taken from Day 13 Devotional in Choosing Gratitude) Going through the Psalms you could definitely find many things to add to your "thankful I have-nots" list from day 10. But a common theme runs through the Psalms as well. Praising and thanking God for what He has brought them to and through. Do you stop to thank God when it seems you have nothing? Even when I might think I don't have anything at all, I need to remember that I have grace, love and salvation from a God who knows what is best for me in the end.
Day 14: Gratitude on the Run (Psalm 56) This Psalm is written by David after he had been captured by the Philistines in Gath. David looked beyond his circumstances and thanked God for what He was doing in the midst of them. Are there any specific things you can thank God for that always bring you comfort in times of turmoil? I know I am thankful for the gift of the Spirit in me to reassure me with God's Word and love. I am thankful to know that I can turn to Him in prayer and I am thankful for a believing husband and sisters in Christ who can give me sound advice on where to go and what to do in certain situations.
Ah, now I am all caught up. Hopefully, the next entry won't have to be quite so long!! Keep thanking Him!!
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