It was one of those days. It had been a rough night, my kids were fighting every few minutes, and nothing about the day seemed to be going right. I knew I should be thankful. After all, it was “just a bad day, not a bad life” but I was still having trouble getting my heart right. As I was praying, the Lord brought this song to my mind.
I will enter His gates with Thanksgiving in my heart
I will enter His courts with praise
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
I don’t think I had heard it for many years, but there it was. God is always so faithful to bring reminders to us when we need them the most, and I REALLY needed the reminder that day. Truth be told, I had been struggling for about a week with letting my worries and day to day issues live at the forefront of my mind instead of my blessings. It was in the middle of my bad attitude that the Lord reminded me, through this song, that my circumstances and emotions do not get to dictate whether I have a heart of thanksgiving. The fact that “this is the day that the Lord has made” is enough to warrant thankfulness. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in allcircumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Some synonyms of thankfulness are gratitude, appreciation, and gratefulness. He is worthy of our gratitude/appreciation/gratefulness because he is God. We need no reason other than he is the creator and we are the creation, but he is a good God who loves us so much that he also gave us Jesus. No matter how my day is going, no matter what situation I am in, I can choose a heart of thankfulness because of the freedom I have in Jesus. Even in our sin, he became the sacrifice and took our punishment for us so we could live in freedom on Earth and in heaven with him someday. If that is not something to be thankful for, I don’t know what is!
Having a heart of thanksgiving may not change our situation, but it will change our mindset. Saying “I choose to be thankful” will shift our focus to the Lord instead of the problem and bring about peace even in the middle of a trying day. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” If we can be intentional about having a thankful heart on the good days, it will come a lot easier to us on the bad days.
Cultivating a heart of thanksgiving may not come easy at first, and that is okay. Sometimes, especially in the middle of our trials, all we can really start with is “thank you, God.” In my experience, as I get into the habit of saying “thank you, God” instead of only complaining to God, specific blessings from the Lord come to my mind much faster. I can then say “thank you God for the blessing of…” because we know if it is good, it is from the Lord. James 1:16-17 says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”
God is so good to us, friends. He loves us and wants us to live a life full of joy and peace no matter our circumstances. Let’s remember to thank him today. “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1
We would like to thank Courtney Harper for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 