Learning to Give Thanks

We are going to do a short little two week series here on the / / wonder of giving thanks. I love thanksgiving, and usually I do a 3 or 4 week series on Thanksgiving because I believe it is absolutely one of the most important aspects of our Christian life.

How we give thanks shows a lot about who we are, what has transformed in us, what God has done in us. So, this week we are going to focus on Learning To Give Thanks.

You might think. Well, I’m pretty sure we all know how to say thank you. And that is probably true. But, what we normally express as giving thanks is that we use it as a response. The idea of saying thank you is always in response to something that someone else has done to us, or for us, or maybe they have given something to us, and so as a response of gratitude we say, “Thank you.”

That’s not a bad thing at all. It’s an incredibly wonderful thing and we’ll be looking at that next week. Living a life of Gratitude every day of the year.

But today the thing I want to look at is how Jesus approached giving thanks. And this is kind of an interesting thing. Jesus doesn’t actually teach about gratitude or giving thanks. If you look at scripture and search for “What does the bible say about Thanksgiving” or Giving Thanks, or Gratitude. Most of what comes up is from the Psalms or the writings of Paul. 1 Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians, Romans, Philippians, 1 Timothy, the letters to the Corinthians, and the book of Hebrews, which we don’t know who wrote it, but some do believe it was Paul. All of these books have something them about being grateful, or giving thanks, of making it a regular and important part of your life.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, / / Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

That sums up what Paul thinks about having a heart and attitude of gratefulness and thanksgiving. It’s the will of God for our lives. And that would preach right there. Be joyful, pray, give thanks… God’s plan!

But, I found myself asking, why did Jesus not specifically teach about giving thanks? or being grateful?

Here’s what I think. And this is just speculation here, but, I think two things were at play here. First, with his life and actions, he modeled it. / / Jesus modeled living a grateful life. I think it was so a part of his life and approach to people that it was so apparent this is what he wanted that he didn’t have to teach it. People wanted to be around him. People flocked to him. And that doesn’t usually happen to crusty, ungrateful, moody people, does it? Jesus was different.

The other reason I think Jesus didn’t teach on it is for the very same reason that Paul DID talk about it. Why does Paul talk about it so much? Well, think of who Paul is writing too. Often times Paul is writing to gentiles, which simply means those who are not of Jewish Heritage. They have become followers of Christ out of either no religion at all, or a pagan religion. But Remember what I said a moment ago - the Psalms are one of those places in the bible that ARE full of gratitude. This great book of Jewish poetry is full of the heart of Gratitude.

Psalm 118:24, / / This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice [feel or show great joy or delight] and be glad in it.

To me that is just dripping with a heart of gratitude.

Psalm 136 is a beautiful Psalm that tells us to give thanks 12 times!

/ / Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good… His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who made the heavens so skillfully. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who placed the earth among the waters. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights…the sun to rule the day…and the moon and stars to rule the night. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who killed the firstborn of Egypt…He brought Israel out of Egypt…He acted with a strong hand and powerful arm. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks t him who parted the Red Sea… He led Israel safely through…but he hurled Pharoah and his army into the Red Sea. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who led his people through the wilderness… He killed powerful kings... Sihon king of the Amorites... Og king of Bashan… God gave the land of these kings as an inheritance… a special possession to his servant Israel… He remembered our weakness… He saved us from our enemies… He gives food to every living thing. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever.

Why have I read that whole chapter? Because I think it shows us what the culture and heritage of the people of God was like.

Twelve times we are instructed to give thanks, and every line, even where I put three dots and didn’t repeat it all, but every line repeats the same phrase, His faithful love endures forever. Other translations say His Steadfast love, or his loving kindness, Or His mercy endures forever. If you’ve ever been in a liturgical service, where there is a congregational response, you can almost hear it, and it is believed this was how the people responded. Someone would read the Psalm, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. And the congregation would respond. His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods. and the people again, His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 136 is considered one of the greatest Psalms, referred to in Jewish liturgy as Hallel HaGadol, or the Great Hallel, the Great Praise.

This is important for two reasons.

First, like I said, it shows the culture and heritage.

The psalm speaks over and over again of the things God has done which give Israel reason to give thanks. This is responsive thanksgiving. God has done great things, we are grateful. And if we are lacking in gratitude, we can go back and think on the things He has done!

This psalm goes through thanking God for creation, the sun, moon and stars, thanking God for his salvation from slavery in Egypt, through bringing them through the wilderness and providing for them.

It’s a continual reminder of what God has done.

Second, it is more than simply saying thank you, but becomes an act of praise. This is called the Psalm of Great Praise. We’re more than just saying thank you, we’re expression true, sincere, heartfelt gratitude through praise and worship of what God has done because ONLY God could have done it!

Again, the reason this is important is because this is part of tradition. You want to know why Jesus maybe didn’t talk about giving thanks so much? Maybe giving thanks wasn’t an issue. Maybe culturally they were already very grateful. Very thankful. And so why would Paul then talk about it so much? Because he’s writing to people who are NOT from that traditional background. Did NOT grow up being taught to give thanks to God. So, Paul then needs to teach them how to do so.

It’s the same reason I take at least a couple weeks every November and talk about giving thanks! Because of the value and importance of it that our culture does NOT always embrace. We need to be reminded of the important things sometimes, don’t we?

Of course it’s just speculation, but to me it makes sense. Jesus is mostly speaking to people that understand gratitude, for what God has done, what they have not understood is that he’s a close and personal God and that he was standing there right in front of them!

This isn’t the only topic that has this kind of thing in it.

Some people say, “Jesus never talked about tithing...” And we can look at scripture and see Jesus never does a big sermon on tithing, that is correct. But is that because he doesn’t approve, or because it’s an old testament thing, or maybe it’s because culturally it’s not something he needs to talk about? What Jesus DID talk about is making sure money didn’t have a hold on you. What Jesus DID talk about was making sure we weren’t worried. That we were content with or without. That we knew God knows what we need. But listen to what he says in Matthew 23:23, speaking to some religious leaders, he says, / / “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law - justice, mercy and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

Does it sound like he’s against it? No, he’s actually telling them they should be doing it. He said they already are. He doesn’t have to tell them to do that.

There are other topics like this as well, things that were culturally done at the time, that Jesus didn’t need to talk about, and then you see later on, in the letters written to the early churches, Paul and others have to encourage people to prepare their financial gifts for when he arrives and they encourage people to give etc… Again, speaking to those who it was NOT part of their culture and heritage to honor God in that way.

Giving thanks, or a lifestyle of gratitude is in the same boat, so to speak, and we’re going to look at that more next week, making sure we are bringing thankfulness into our lives far more often than just one day a year.

But as I said, what we’ve looked at so far is all responsive gratitude, giving thanks for what God has done.

What I want to look at today is something Jesus DID model in his life. And that is what I am going to call preemptive gratitude, or / / preemptive thanksgiving.

What I want to challenge us all in today is the idea of giving thanks before we see what it is we are looking for in our lives - or we could say it this way, / / being grateful is a key to a better way of life.

In our series we just finished, Could I Be Happier? One of the things we talked about was the fact that Jesus seems to always be inviting us to a better way of living. Or a better way of doing things. And it wasn’t that the people didn’t know how to be thankful or grateful, but Jesus shows them an even better way of utilizing this important practice in our relationship with God.

He’s also sort of bringing Psalm 136:4 into a current moment. / / Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.

Yes, true, and I know you believe that, but are you expecting miracles NOW?

It is good that you are grateful for the miracles He has done. But are you expecting miracles now? Because there is a better way to be grateful. Let me show you how...

/ / Gratitude that only looks back limits what God can do in the here and now!

We are going to look at a couple stories from the life of Jesus, and I want to first look at the story of Lazarus.

If you know the story, it’s in John 11. For sake of time we won’t read the whole thing, but I’ll give you the Cliff’s notes version. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, good friends of Jesus. In fact, it seems that Jesus would often go with his disciples to their house and they would feed them, they would hang out. It was a regular place.

Lazarus gets sick, and they are close enough that his sisters feel comfortable enough to send a message to the savior of the world asking him to stop what he’s doing and come to their house to heal their brother. And their message is very straight forward, / / “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” Almost like they’re just assuming he’s going to drop everything and rush over. You’ve gotta be pretty close to assume you’ve got that kind of sway, right?

Jesus says, “Don’t worry, this won’t end in death.” and he keeps on doing what he’s doing for the next two days. John 11:7 says, / / Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

By the time he gets there, and I don’t know how long it’s been, but Lazarus has been in his grave for four days. Obviously Mary and Martha are distraught. Martha comes out to meet Jesus and says in John 11:21, / / “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

Interesting that Martha seems to have some faith here that Jesus could still do a miracle. “even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” but then as soon as Jesus says, “ya, your brother isn’t going to stay dead.” it’s like she doesn’t want to hope that much, so she kind of says, “sure, like, when everyone else does, right?”

And then this is where Jesus says one of his most famous lines. It’s beautiful, and powerful.

/ / Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die...”

Mary eventually comes out, says the same thing her sister had, “If only you had been here...”

He tells them to lead him to the tomb and when they get there he says to roll the stone away. Now, after that conversation they had, Martha still says, / / “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” So, she doesn’t get what’s going on. She thinks Jesus is still talking about an eternal sense of life rather than her brother being raised from the dead.

Now, this is where the story gets really good. And this is where we see Jesus bringing into the picture this way of giving thanks for what we are believing for rather than giving thanks for what we have received.

They roll the stone aside and John 11:41-44 says, / / Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Did you see it.

BEFORE the command of healing or resurrection, came the thanksgiving.

/ / “Father, thank you for hearing me.”

But he hasn’t prayed yet. He hasn’t commanded anything yet. He hasn’t called Lazarus out of the grave yet.

“Father, thank you for hearing me.”

Why?

Two important reasons.

/ / 1. Build YOUR faith!

Do you believe God hears you?

When you pray, do you believe that God hears you and wants to answer your prayer? Wouldn’t it be good to give yourself a reminder? Set your expectations in the right way.

God, thank you for hearing me. It’s not getting his attention, “Hey God, I’m about to pray something important, are you listening?” But it’s reminded ourselves of the truth, “God is always listening to us!”

In contrast, what does the enemy always try to do?

What did he do in the garden with Adam & Eve? He challenged their believe in who God is… / / “Are you sure God said?”

What did he do with Jesus in the wilderness? He challenged his believe in whether he was truly his son or not. First thing He says to him, / / “If you are the Son of God...”

What’s Jesus doing here? Among other wonderful things, I believe He’s showing us how to put a silence to the enemies doubts.

Do we know God hears us?

Jesus has been preaching about how to pray, believing God listens.

Matthew 6:8-13, / / …your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this, Our Father in heaven...

Matthew 6:6, / / …when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

God is listening. God is watching for us to come to him and pray.

Do I always believe that when I pray?

I would be lying to you if I said that I haven’t ever started a prayer with, “If you’re listening...”

OF course he’s listening.

How do we remove the doubt?

“Father, thank you for hearing me.”

Does he?

Yes!

How do you know?

Jesus said he listens when we pray.

But you’ve sinned.

Yes, and you’re the father of lies, so stay quiet… I’m busy.

“Father, thank you for hearing me.”

And that’s the second point, / / 2. It silences the enemy. And one without the other is incomplete.

Don’t just try to build your faith so you can keep listening to the enemy, and don’t try to push away the enemy without working at building you faith.

James 4:7-8 says this, / / So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

Don’t just try to resist the devil, but resist the devil and turn to God.

“Father, thank you for hearing me.”

Reminding ourselves that He is listening, and reminding the devil of the same!

So, / / Preemptive thanksgiving builds our faith and silences the enemy!

And this isn’t just in hearing.

Whatever it is you are struggling with, find the truth in scripture and thank God for it.

Are you struggling with finances right now and the enemy is trying to get at you with it, reminding you of the struggle, pointing out the hardship, giving you lost of reason to worry?

Ok, Thank you God that you are my provider.

Is God providing in the moment? It might not feel like it. But is it any less true?

Thank you God that you see my situation.

Do you feel like he sees it? Maybe not, but is it any less true?

Thank you God that you know exactly what I need before I even ask....

But here I go, I’m going to ask anyway. I’m so glad and grateful that you hear me, that you know me, that you see me and you know exactly what I need...

This has been a really rough time. And I could use help. Would you give me wisdom and guidance in this time. Help me see what I need to do here. And help me see if there are things you’re doing that I just don’t need to do. Give me grace to endure the things I can’t change and give me courage to step out in faith and action where I need to.

Man, that changes everything.

You may have heard Kelley or I pray that way in our services before as well. / / “Thank you for what you have done, what you are doing, and what you are yet to do in our lives!”

Why? Because we know that God is doing things we can’t yet see or don’t understand. I would rather embrace the truth of God’s power and potential than live in the doubt of what I see in the world around me. And preemptive thanksgiving reminds me of what He has said He will do. Or who He says he is.

That’s really the story of Lazarus here. Jesus is recalling and reminding and stating who God is. He’s a listening God. He is a Father who is there to hear his children. Jesus thanks God for hearing him and says it out loud, not for his own benefit, but for those around him, so that they can hear it as well. “Hey, guys, listen up, my Father, who is your Father is listening when you pray...” And we need that reminder sometimes.

Gratitude can help us keep our perspective in our relationship with God. God is always with us, God is always for us, God is always good. God is always listening. He hears us. Which means no matter the situation, He is always there. No matter the problems at hand. He is always present.

Gratitude reminds us of this. Think of the scriptures that reference God being with us.

Matthew 1:23, the angel tells Mary that Jesus name is / / Immanuel, it means God with us. Thank you that you are with me. If his name literally means that he is with us, who am I to argue that he isn’t? The enemy might try to convince me. My situation might try to get me to believe it. But what is the truth. Thank you for being with me.

Psalm 23:4, / / Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me...

1 Corinthians 3:16, / / Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

Jeremiah 29:11, / / For I know the plans I have for you…plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Thank you God that you have plans I can not see. Thank you Father that you know what is best for me. Thank you Holy Spirit that you are leading me and guiding me toward those plans. Would you make them more visible, open my eyes to see, my ears to hear… Thank you for leading me in your way, Jesus.

Gratitude enables us to take our eyes off of the situation at hand and back onto the one who IS the solution.

What did Jesus do? He’s faced with a dead body, a group of unbelieving people, questioning his ability and even questioning what he’s doing. “Why would we open the tomb, he’s been dead for 4 days, do you realize how bad that will smell?”

Thank you Father for hearing me...

The next story I want to read is preemptive thanksgiving when we are about to step out in faith.

So, in the story of Lazarus Jesus isn’t thanking God for raising Lazarus from the dead, he’s thanking him for the closeness of relationship. But in this story I want to look at Jesus directly thanks God for what he is about to do that directly results in a miracle.

Sometimes we come up against road blocks and there is just no way in our humanity we can do it on our own. We need a miracle. We need God. And those moments can either get us down by looking at the situation at hand, or we can employ gratitude and thanksgiving to invite God to do something we could never do.

Our thanksgiving becomes a prayer of faith.

Matthew 15:32-39 tells the story of Jesus feeding four thousand men, plus women and children, with very little food.

Let’s read it and then see how Jesus brings gratitude into the scenario.

/ / Then Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.”

The disciples replied, “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”

Jesus asked, “How much bread do we have?”

They replied, “Seven loaves, and a few small fish.”

So Jess told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to the disciples who distributed food to the crowd.

They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were 4,000 men who were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children. Then Jesus sent the people home...

So, he could have, like in the first story said, Thank you for hearing me, but this time scripture tells us that Jesus specifically thanked God for the food in his hands.

This is the second time Jesus does this incredible miracle. In the chapter before, Matthew 14:13-21 he feeds 5,000 men plus women and children with even less food, five loaves of bread and two fish.

And in that story in Matthew 14:19 says, / / Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them.

So not the word thanks, but what do you think he’s doing when he looks up to heaven?

Four years ago I was here one day praying and I was telling God how I wanted to bless our town but I just did not know how we were ever going to be able to do that, and just like He asks Moses in Exodus 4:2, when Moses is questioning how on earth God is going to come through for him, God asks him, “What is in your hand?” and it was his staff, and the staff became the object of significant miracles that would display God’s glory. I felt the same thing from God in that moment, “What is it that you DO have?”

The disciples in Matthew 15 were the voice of doubt. Jesus expressed his desire to feed the people, and the voice of doubt was what? / / “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness...”

Moses in Exodus 4 said to God, / / “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you?’”

I was asking the same thing, / / “God, we have no people, we have no money, how on earth are we going to bless our town?”

God asks Moses, / / “What do you have in your hand?”

Jesus asks the disciples, / / “How much bread DO we have?”

I felt God was asking me, / / “What DO you have?”

And my response was, this property, we have great buildings and a huge front lawn.

And in each scenario God’s response is the same...

Moses replies, “I have a staff...” God says, “I can work with that.”

The disciples say, “7 bread a few fish”… Jesus says, “I can work with that.”

I say, “a property...” Holy Spirit says, “I can work with that!”

And then Jesus takes what he has in the natural and offers it to God through thanksgiving.

Looking up to heaven He blessed it… he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them…

/ / In a time of recession we should be preemptively thanking God for the provision and miracles he wants to do in our lives!

I wonder if at the last supper, when Jesus broke the bread and said, “Do this in remembrance of me...” how many disciples in that room remembered him breaking the bread on that hillside and thanking God and then seeing a miracle of that magnitude.

It is so easy to look at the situations we face and be so overwhelmed with them that we forget that God can use what we have in our hand.

I mentioned this saying a couple weeks ago, don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill. And that’s exactly what can happen when we allow our circumstances to dictate our next move.

Why Preemptive thanksgiving? Because / / responsive thanksgiving is for what God HAS done, but preemptive thanksgiving reminds us that God can do it again!

Yesterday I was incredibly grateful for our property. We had community, blessing, joy, all expressed because we have a property God can use.

And you might think, How spiritual is that?

Proverbs 11:11 says, / / Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted...

TPT says it this way, / / When right-living people bless the city, it flourishes.

We bless our city!

My point this morning is not about what you have in your hand, but what you do with it. And by that I don’t mean you simply use it. But do you thank God for it? Do you bless it? Do you invite God into the process of what you are walking into?

What if God began to multiple each meal we had so that we had left-overs to feed us again? What if in that simple way every dollar we spend on food was stretched double or triple?

Jesus didn’t just do a miracle. He looked up to heaven, I wish I could hear what that sounded like when Jesus prays in moments like that.

You can hear the heart of Jesus about prayer when he tells us how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13, / / Pray like this, Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need....

...we need a LOT of food today. Thank you for these 7 loaves of bread… Thank you for these fish that Peter caught this morning. Thank you for providing what we need.

I want to encourage you this morning, when you are faced with difficulty in your life. When you are faced with uncertainty. Question. Lack. Doubt. Fear. Whatever the case may be, I want to encourage you to be preemptively grateful.

We don’t have to be grateful for the trial, but in the trial we can learn to be grateful. A few weeks ago I made reference to the attitude that Bill Johnson has taken since his wife passed a few months ago. This revelation that he will never get this moment on earth when he is in heaven. He will never get to praise through the suffering. Worship through the pain. He will never get to pursue thanksgiving in the face of heartache once he is in heaven. These are gifts to our God that can only be given on this earth.

And our human nature, or as Bill says it, the heart of the atheist always has to ask, “Why?” but sometimes it is not ours to know why.

And I think sometimes when we face difficulty, or we face moments where we are in lack and don’t know how we are going to make it, our human compulsion is to ask God, “Why aren’t you doing something?” “Why aren’t you looking after me?” “Why haven’t you provided?” “Didn’t I give my life to you? Didn’t I serve you? Why have you not done what you said you would do?”

And although I wouldn’t say it is wrong, or definitely not a sin to ask why, I have found that that question goes largely unanswered in my life. We are better not to ask why, but instead, be faithful in the moment.

I want to end this morning by reading something Paul encourages Timothy with. He’s been training and teaching Timothy, working with him to be a spiritual leader, and he writes in his second letter to him, in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, / / You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

(vs 10) But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach… (vs 14) you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught.

In the coming days, Paul says, There will be many who are ‘ungrateful’. And what does he say is the key? “Remember what you’ve been taught...”

Well, Timothy was with Paul when he wrote the letter to the Romans and in Romans 1:21-23 Paul gives a warning to those who would turn from God’s ways. He says, / / Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

What’s he saying? He’s saying, / / when we forget to give God thanks, we begin to think of how we need to work the problem ourselves.

Preemptive gratitude puts our faith back in check. Preemptive gratitude reminds us of who God is. Preemptive gratitude sets our expectations on the things of God rather than on the work of our own efforts.

Looking up to heaven Jesus thanked God for the food in his hands...

Why? Because in thanking God he’s reminding himself that God has done this before and he can do it again.

In thanking God he’s reminding himself of who God is.

Remember Psalm 136? Remember why that was so important? Because it became a regular part of life to remind ourselves of what God HAS done to place in us a faith and expectation for what God WILL do in our lives.

I might not have what I need, but can I thank God for being my provider, even before I see Him move in my life?

I might not have the answers, but can I thank the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth for leading me rightly, even if I never know the answer?

Maybe I don’t feel free, but can I thank Jesus for being the one who breaks every chain, even before I feel it all?

Because when I don’t, I leave room for doubt and question, I leave room for the enemy to come in and say, “See, he didn’t do it… See, he didn’t come through… See, he’s not really good… He doesn’t really hear you… He doesn’t really watch over you...”

No, this is faith. To remind myself of who God is, what He’s done, and thank him for being those things, not just for what he did, I’m not just thanking God that He DID provide, and wouldn’t it be nice if he did that again, but thanking him for BEING my provider. Yes, you did provide, and I thank you, but I thank you that provision is what you do. Not just what you did.

Paul actually warns Timothy of some teachers who begin teaching that the resurrection has already happened, and now they are teaching not to expect it and so they are leading people astray. God WAS the God who raises the dead. God IS the God who raises the dead. And God will forever be the God who has and exhibits resurrection power!

God did provide, and God will provide. Because He IS the provider.

God did heal, and God WILL heal. Because He IS the healer.

God did set free and God WILL set free. Because He is the redeemer, our salvation, our hope!

I read a great little statement the other day. / / Gratitude is a discipline before its a feeling!

Whatever you are going through today. Even if you have not yet seen God do it in your life, allow faith to be built up in you by being grateful.