Today, as I was listening to the live broadcast and praying along with it, the Lord started reminding me of some situations that He put me in a few years back, and He began to show me some areas where I did not handle things right. He began to show me how I would rarely thank Him, in fact, I complained more than I gave thanks.
Well, what are you going to do when Jesus shows you things like that? I recommend you immediately agree and say, yes Lord, you are right.
Things have really been tough the past few years, but what I finally realized and of course it was the spirit of God that revealed it to me, was the fact, the reason why some of the situations were so tough or seemed to drag on forever, was because of my pride and my unthankful heart.
A few months back, things around me started to heat up again, and after a few days I realized that God was bringing me back to a place to see if I would obey Him, obey His Word and start giving thanks for everything, not just when things were good.
As I read the psalms, God started revealing to me more and more about how the children of Israel murmured and complained and they would not believe God and how God was displeased.
Last week, things got a little tougher, and God set up a conversation with a friend of mine, and the words that they spoke changed me that day. My friend told me, "You have to give thanks, because the more you complain and murmur, the more you will prolong this situation. You will get through it a lot faster and it will be a lot better as you're going through it, if you give thanks. You know that God put you in this, and you know that it is his righteousness and his grace on your life, so give Him thanks." At that moment, I knew that I did not want to continue to oppose myself! To make it worse for myself, that was ridiculous!
I adhered to the words that were spoken and made a decision right then, that I was going to start and continue to put off that complaining old man, (now it's not like I have never given thanks before, but this was a whole new realm that I was experiencing), whenever I saw something that I did not like, I would then exercise myself to give thanks, right then and there.
Things began to change immediately, and I would wake up with a thankful heart and when I prayed and thanked God, I knew I meant it. If a thought would come up, or fear or whatever about my circumstance, I would just continue to pray until I put it off and overcome right then.
As I continued to give thanks, the grace of God would abound in my life for whatever I needed to overcome. We read throughout the Psalms about giving thanks, we see it throughout the New Testament about giving thanks. God grants grace to the humble and resists the prideful, (and when you give thanks instead of complaining, that grace will start to work in your life), and I realized if I didn't give God thanks, I was in pride.
Remember, Jesus got out of the wilderness in 40 days. So don't think you have to be out there for 100 years. Jesus also fed the multitudes by just looking up and giving thanks unto the Father, he is our example. Don't limit God!
Romans 5:1-2 says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
So let's use our faith and believe this gospel and give thanks!
God bless,
Pamela
