A Grateful Heart

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus I Thes 5:18).

There’s a sign in my room that says, “Begin each day with a grateful heart.” Although it’s not an exact quote from scripture, I’m sure it paraphrases one of the 100s of verses about gratitude.

Gratitude is a mindset that puts the focus on the blessings instead of the challenges. It focuses on God, the giver of every good gift.

I know that a lot of messages have been spoken about the first part of this verse—how can we be thankful, not for tragedies, but in the midst of them. And it is difficult, and as believers we do need to be reminded that God promised that He’d never forsake us, but my focus today is on the second part—His will.

Personally, I am always asking God what His will is in different circumstances. And this one is one that we can know and practice daily. Only He can change our hearts, but other than salvation, He doesn’t just automatically make our hearts perfect. He helps us to grow a heart that trusts Him more and more each day as we realize that He’s walking right beside us molding us little by little into the image of His perfect Son.

And for that I can be grateful.

Lessons from the Beatitudes (Part 1)

Matthew 5:3-10

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We will be happier if we are aware of our need for God and not try to rely on earthly things.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

We mourn because we can’t control our sinful nature, not just the consequences, but we do things we don’t want to do repeatedly and evade things we desire to do.            The good news is that godly sorrow brings repentance.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

             The meek aren’t weak or powerless, but just the opposite. Meekness requires refraining from the display of one’s rights or power for the benefit of someone else. It is displaying the attitude of Christ.

Just in these three we are told to live counter to our human nature—to harness the very things that we think will give us satisfaction or a happy life. But our real happiness is not a temporary feeling, but rather a joy or an inner peace that comes only when we trust and follow God.

Imposter Syndrome

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him ( Jeremiah 17:7).

One of my students, a teacher who has been teaching for a number of years, mentioned that she suffers from imposter syndrome. Thank you, Google, because this was the first time that I heard the term. I’ll save you the time. “Imposter syndrome is the condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high-performing in external, objective ways. This condition often results in people feeling like ‘a fraud’ or ‘a phony’ and doubting their abilities.”

I get it, Sherry. I remember sitting in my office at the college thinking, “What am I doing? I’m the dumbest one here.”

But this condition can be much more risky when we apply it to our spiritual walk. A lie of the enemy can be amplified to sabotage us into thinking that we are worthless as a Christian , thinking that we have no gifts or talents that can be used to help anyone or to further the Kingdom. It may even cause us to question our own salvation.

We may find ourselves trying so hard in our own strength that it could lead to burn-out and giving up—a win for the enemy for sure.

If you ever experience an episode like this, remember that God wants us to depend on Him. He gave us talents, skills, and a purpose that only we can accomplish when we put our trust in Him alone. On our own we can never do enough, and that’s exactly why the Father sent His Son.

So, in some cases we need to give ourselves grace, not excuses, but recognizing that we weren’t created to do life alone.

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

Parenting and the Gap Prayer

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth (3 John 1:4).

A while back our youth leaders delivered an excellent message on how to effectively encourage your children. Although they were mainly addressing parents of school age children, the principles apply at any age or in fact, any relationship.

My own children are now grown and I must admit at times I would love a do-over. I remember thinking when each child left home, “Do they know everything that they need to in order to survive?” They may know how to turn on the washing machine and floss their teeth, but what about making a spur of the moment decision when peer pressure is at its peak. Are they grounded enough spiritually? Did I do too little or maybe too much?

You see, one of Satan’s bag of tricks for parents is guilt. But God is so good, and He provided me with a friend who taught me about what she called “the Gap Prayer.”

It is simply asking the Perfect Father to fill in the gaps in my child’s heart in the areas where I failed to do, say, teach or show him something. God loves my children much, much more than I do and wants them to succeed (His definition) in the perfect plan that He has laid out especially for each one.

As parents we have been given many joys and much responsibility, but He is right here with us releasing His strength in our areas of weakness or limitation. We and our children are not going into the battle alone.

Conquering Evil

Don’t let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good (Romans 12:21).

For those of us who like to fix things, watching our word deteriorate in tolerating sin as acceptable or even honorable, it is frustrating. We know in our hearts that the answer is to trust God. He doesn’t cause evil, but evil appears in situations where His goodness is absent. This scripture gives us a few guidelines in this verse as to what our response to evil should be.

The first is not to be drawn into or entangled in the sin ourselves. It is so easy to get pulled into believing the lies when we are surrounded by them 24/7. We are made to feel that our views are hateful and disgusting instead of being motivated by truth, goodness and love. Our human need for acceptance often tempts us into silence or worse, into tolerating, partaking, accepting, and maybe even promoting sin. Scripture warns—don’t let evil conquer you!

The next lesson is not to seek revenge.  Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. God doesn’t need our help in serving justice. His bigger plan for justice is that none should perish, where mine is sometimes just retaliation.

And finally, do good. Our response should always be for the other’s greater good. We can dislike someone, but still desire their “greater good” when that is defined as salvation. Jesus was our perfect model of never repaying evil with anything other than love and compassion. Till the very end of His human life, He prayed for those who persecuted Him.

Conquer evil by doing good.