Thankfulness

It was right before Thanksgiving vacation that I recall asking one of my pastor's and his wife to come and pray for me in my home. The twins were about 3 1/2 months old; I was experiencing a lot of discomfort nursing them and battling infections one after the other due to a supressed immune system that just did not want to fight anything off on its own. My physical body was depleted of much needed energy, and my spiritual body was depleted as well.

One of my pastors, Jimmy, with his wife, Abby, came to pray for healing, but they also brought with them a heart to encourage and a few resources to leave with me so that I would continue to be encouraged in the days to come. One of the resources they left with me was a tiny little booklet entitled, Thankfulness...Even When It Hurts by Susan Lutz. This booklet is one of many a part of Resources for Changing Lives published by Christian Counseling and Education Foundation.

I picked up that little booklet recently and have been freshly encouraged and challenged by its timeless truths. I thought that I would take the next week or so to include portions of the booklet on my blog, not only as a way to reinforce these truths and challenges to my own heart and mind, but God willing, as a way to encourage any of my readers as well.

In the introductory sections of this little booklet, Susan reminds the reader that the created world is always giving thanks to the Creator. As she states, "Praise and thanks to God seem to be the natural, authentic, and spontaneous response of the rest of the created world. Human beings are the notable exception. Basically, we're not normal! If we saw things as they truly are, praise and thanks are apparently what we would do all the time."

Susan lists six ways that being thankful can help in times when our worlds just don't seem right (which has been a lot for me recently). I will list those six ways over the course of the next week. And, in addition to her remarks, I may make a list of the few things I'm thankful for on that day. Feel free to add your own list on your comment.

#1 Way being thankful helps when our world just doesn't seem right:

As soon as you are thankful, you enter the presence of God. You instantly are reminded that you are not alone in your situation, isolated, feeling as if you've been left to fight your battles on your own. When you are thankful, you remember that you are living your life in God's presence. Being thankful is not just a technique in which you talk yourself into a positive frame of mind. Thankfulness reminds you that you have a relationship with the living God. He is listening and involved. He is there with you. You are thinking like heaven, even if your circumstances seem more like something else.