May we be found practicing thankful awareness. Amen.

Continuing to think about giving thanks, I think sometimes we often forget to be thankful for the “small things” of life, or maybe we take some things for granted, until we don’t have them, or they are not working, like, we should be thankful we woke up this morning, that we have healthy strong bodies, which I know is easy to take for granted until our body is not working correctly. We should be thankful we have a house to live in, and a vehicle to drive, and a job to go to, and food to eat each day. We should be thankful for our family, and our friends, and…and…and.

In my life, one of the things I am most thankful for is the transforming work that God did in my marriage, but really in me. Dean and I are reading and hosting a book discussion on the book Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs so I have been more keenly aware and practicing thankful awareness for my relationship with Dean lately.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post early on in our marriage Dean and I weren’t doing bad, but we just weren’t doing good either. I remember thinking, “God did not intend for two people who love him and are trying to serve him, to live like this.”

That thought brought me to the only place I knew to go to my knees in prayer. Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERYTHING, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.”

I believe God’s word to be true, so I was doing what it said. I decided to take everything to God, because I had found that asking other people was not helping, and nagging Dean wasn’t making anyone happier. The verse says, “in EVERYTHING” meaning bring God the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the easy and the hard, the big and the small, from every aspect of your life. It is all part of life and He equips us to deal with it all well.

We are told to do this “with thanksgiving.” For me that meant choosing to focus on the positives. God began to show me that I need to appreciate Dean, who he is and what he does for our family, and not just look at the things I thought he wasn’t doing right or how he wasn’t meeting my expectations.

One thing I like to do is read. God has made a lot of people smarter than me and I can glean from their wisdom and understanding of God’s Word, of Truth. One book that made a big difference, then, was “The Power of a Praying Wife.” In the introduction, aptly called “The Power,” in the third sentence Stormie says, “It’s laying down all power in and of yourself, and relying on God’s power to transform you, your husband, your circumstances, and your marriage.” Over time as I have laid down, and continue to lay down myself and rely on God he has transformed my life.  He has radically transformed my perspective.

It didn’t happen overnight, and I am still a work in progress! But often as I bring my everything to God with thanksgiving, He helps me to see what I did wrong in the situation, or how I could have loved more like Jesus, or reacted more like Jesus.

Another verse that helps me is Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” As I delight in God, who He is (praise) and what He has done in my life (thanksgiving) He changes me. He gives me His perspective and my desires start to become His desires. This is an ongoing process for me and to be honest some days I do much better than others. And with some people I do better than others.

When God helped me realize that I have to depend on Him for everything, and not expect anything from others, it dramatically changed my relationships. I chose to recognize God as my source of everything, and out of that came a huge thanksgiving and continual thanksgiving for the people in my life. God gives me His perspective as I spend time talking with Him and reading His Word and sitting in His presence.

When I consistently spend time with God, I know His love for me, and I am able to appreciate and enjoy the people in my life without expecting them to meet a need only He can meet.

I often read Jesus Calling, a daily devotional, and my favorite entry is November 24. Jesus Calling is written as if God was talking to you. On that day, it says, “Thankfulness takes the sting out of adversity. That is why I have instructed you to give thanks for everything. There is an element of mystery in this transaction: You give Me thanks (regardless of your feelings), and I give you Joy (regardless of your circumstances). This is a spiritual act of obedience –at times, blind obedience. To people who don’t know Me intimately, it can seem irrational and even impossible to thank Me for heartrending hardships. Nonetheless, those who obey Me in this way are invariably blessed, even though difficulties remain.

Thankfulness opens your heart to My Presence and your mind to My thoughts. You may still be in the same place, with the same circumstances, but it is as if a light has been switched on, enabling you to see from My perspective. It is this Light of My Presence that removes the sting of adversity.”

I like how she calls it a mystery, because my human mind cannot comprehend it, but I’ve experienced it, so I know it works. I also like how she says, “It is a spiritual act of obedience –at times, blind obedience.”

In the story in Luke 17, that I mentioned yesterday, about the men healed from leprosy, Jesus told them to go, and I like how it says, “as they went, they were cleansed.” We have to be obedient. Sometimes God calls us to something and as we act in obedience we experience His healing and restoration. Sometimes as we act obediently it seems that nothing goes right or people don’t respond the way we think they should, in those moments we must maintain godly perspective, keep seeking and discovering His Truth regardless of what others do. We must choose to be thankful in everything. We have to choose to keep trusting God, and praying, asking Him to make my thoughts His thoughts and my ways His ways. We practice thankful awareness.

Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life,then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:6-7 TPT