Gratitude is not Thansgiving

How we Feel

For the next 4 messages we are going to be studying a topic that we all should be focused on not only this time during Thanksgiving but all the time.

Gratitude is not thanksgiving. I am sure when your here that you might be thinking yes it is. When I say thanksgiving I am not talking about giving thanks to God.

Thanksgiving is not just the 4th Thursday where we all try to get together with family and friends and eat a bunch of good food.

That time of fellowship is and should be a good time for us to get together with each other and enjoy the time we have . But what I want us to understand is that gratitude is what should be in the heart of every believer.

The first thing I try to do and try to do throughout each day is to tell God how thankful I am for what he has done in my life and what he continues to do every day. I do my best t o try and have a heart of gratitude in my heart which in turn comes out of my mouth.

Gratitude is an expression of our faith that goes beyond how we feel about a particular experience.

This is very important when it comes to the adversity that we face in life. God is always faithful to us and gives us the strength to make it though when those times come.

I say it all the time when these hard times come it helps us to mature in our walk with him and many times equips us to face these times with joy and gratitude towards God.

Some things I want us to get out of the message tonight on Gratitude is this.

Our faith should be greater than how we feel at any given moment

To accept that facing trials is going to happen and that it is OK to have certain feelings and certain emotions during those times.

To never let your emotions keep you from persevering through trials and strengthen your faith.

Realize God is perfecting you in the process and wants you to mature in your faith.

You know these past 2 -3 weeks I have been overwhelmed by many different kinds of emotions because of many kinds of adversity that has come up.

From Sabrina being in the hospital with the blood clots and us not knowing if her cancer has come back, Loxley having the issues she is having with her blood work being off and x-rays showing some unusual things in her lungs, things going on here at church with some of our church family.

Just all kinds of things and through these last few weeks I have found myself overwhelmed. But God is always faithful. I had to keep reminding myself, what I told ya’ll before when we get to that point always go back and remind yourself of all the times he has been faithful.

It can be hard sometimes to accept that everyone of us are going to face trials and adversity in life.

The fact is that our feelings and emotions around these times if we are not careful can take over and control how we respond to them.

We have to make a conscious decision to put our faith above our circumstances.

1 Thessalonians 5:15–18 KJV 1900

See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

James 1:2–4 KJV 1900

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We are called to live a different life from nonbelievers and stay strong in our faith.

Gratitude is not about how we feel. When I am talking about feelings I am referring to our emotions. Feelings and emotions are a physical response to our environment and what is taking place.

May be something good or something bad our minds are processing this experience and which in turn gives us these certain feelings.

These feelings may be joy, happiness, contentment or could be grief, fear or sadness.

All of these feelings are valid and they are valid because God made us with these emotions and although this is our body’s response to what we are experiencing we cannot ignore the response of our spirit.

Biblicaly as faithful followers of Jesus we should understand we have to have a different response than the rest of the world when we are placed in seasons that gives us negative feelings.

Gratitude is an expression of our faith beyond how we feel.

James 1:2–4 KJV 1900

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James here is encouraging the people to be strong in their faith regardless of the trials they are facing.

In these verses James is trying to get us to understand the reality that their is no life that will be free of trouble, trials and test.

Specifically no saved person is given an exemption from the trials of life. Jesus said in

John 16:33 KJV 1900

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Jesus makes it clear to the disciples that they will have tribulation and as he spoke to them and he speaks to us now that same message. It is unavoidable .

James said count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; When not if. James is saying that these believers have and will continue to face tough times but to count it all joy.

We cant avoid the trials but they are an opportunity to test our faith. During this specific time the people were having very bad financial problems. See people even had those issues back then.

They were also facing the physical violence for them believing in Jesus Christ.

Their current reality is that they could have been whining and complaining about the situation they found themselves in. Some may even want to give up on their faith.

But James tells them to do the opposite count it all joy.

That word ”Count” means more than just counting, it actually means to lead the way, to put something at the forefront of our mind.

What James is saying, when we face these various trials our feelings can sometimes dominate our thoughts but James is trying to teach us to let our faith go before our feelings.

We have to Make the intentional decision to let joy lead the way in our minds and hearts. This don’t diminish the pain, the sadness or even the exhaustion we are going through, but it does mean even when we face it we are going to make the decision to be joyful.

Joy is a word that means to delight in something, and we think what in the world is there for me to delight in when I am suffering?

What we can delight in is the faithfulness of God. He is faithful to be present with us during our suffering, he keeps us, strengthens us while we go through the suffering.

God already has a plan just like he promises us in

Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV 1900)

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Listen again to what James says in verses 3-4

James 1:3–4 KJV 1900

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

The testing has purpose and that is the trying of our faith worketh patience.

This helps us reach the place of Christian maturity where we are fully dependent upon our faith and not our feelings or emotions.

What God is saying to us here is that although our feeling are real our emotions cannot have the last say in our lives.

We have to remember that God has not abandoned us in our trials. He is making us stronger in our faith so we are not leaning on our emotions and feelings.

This week I want us to take the time to reflect on how you can show gratitude and be joyful in all the things that are going on around us.

Do what I have had to do myself these past couple of weeks and that is remind myself of all the times God has already been faithful to me in past trials.

I love that song we play when we pray many times, we played it Sunday morning for invitation.

Goodness of God.

I love You, Lord For Your mercy never fails me All my days, I've been held in Your hands From the moment that I wake up Until I lay my head Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

And all my life You have been faithful And all my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

The only appropriate response to the faithfulness and the goodness of God is GRATITUDE.