Most often we associate Thanksgiving with being thankful and giving thanks. We see people doing their posts on social media for every day in November of things they are thankful for. For some of us we think it’s sweet and inspiring, and also for some of us, if we’re honest, we’re slightly annoyed because we ourselves aren’t feeling very thankful lately. We may even feel more guilty as Thanksgiving approaches because we just can’t seem to think of anything we are thankful for in the midst of our difficult circumstances.

Maybe some of us are going through a really tough time. Maybe a job loss before the holidays, maybe the loss of a loved one, challenges with our kids, disagreements with our spouse, financial and health worries, or many other things… Those are really hard things to go through and it’s so hard to think of anything else when our circumstances are so big sometimes and staring us right in the face.

“But what if thankfulness is the way out of these hard pressed emotions surrounding our challenges? What if choosing to be thankful in the midst of hard times, is actually what helps us get our joy and our peace back, when we don’t see how it’s possible in the natural?”

In Philippians 4:6 it reads “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God.”

I used to read that verse and get hung up on the “do not be anxious” part. I would let the enemy guilt me and stop me in my tracks before I even could let the rest of the verse speak to my soul. You see, I’ve dealt with anxiety my whole life. To me the first part of this verse is almost equivalent to the “calm down” some people think is good advice to a panicked person. Ha! No one ever calms down who is told to calm down am I right? But, the verse doesn’t end there. God isn’t just saying, Don’t be anxious or stressed, overwhelmed, or in fear (really they’re all the same thing). He doesn’t leave us stuck with an order for something we have no ability on our own to control or pull off. We need supernatural help y’all.

Let me hop over to Psalm 56:3 for a second and read this for you really quick.

This is King David speaking and he says in this verse, “WHEN I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” He doesn’t say if and he doesn’t say, or when I have failed God and become anxious, no! he says, WHEN I am afraid. God knows we will all deal with the feelings of fear in some way shape or form and He is not shaming us for feeling them, but He doesn’t want our feelings to control and stop us from doing what He’s calling us to. I have heard that there are about 365 verses in the bible that talk about anxiety and fear. It’s such a common thing to us as humans, that God talks about it so much, because He really wants us to help us with this. He wants to show us how we can cast our cares and receive the peace and joy He wants us to have.

In Philippians 4:6, God gives us the antidote to anxiety. The recipe to peace in all of our circumstances. Let’s read it again. (GO BACK UP for a second and read it again, I’ll wait;)

Prayer + Petition + Thanksgiving, as we present our requests to God. This is our antidote! And when we follow God’s recipe, we see in the next verse what our result of doing this will be.

“…And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That sounds amazing! God is so amazing! I want that! Do you want that? Well, it’s going to take us reading this over and over to stir it in our thoughts and drop it into our hearts, but with God all things are possible!

So we know what prayer is…it is simply talking to God. It doesn’t have to be super fancy or super long. And as believers in Christ we have the ability to come boldly before the throne of God and pray knowing He hears us. (Hebrews 4:16). But what does petition mean? Petition is a more formal word that we often hear in legal terms or in a court room. Since our God is the Divine judge, we come before Him humbly and respectfully as we make our prayers and requests known to Him and we can trust that He is good and He is just and He will answer our prayers according to His will and in His timing. It does take patience on our part, so we need to stay in His word and cultivate that expectancy as we wait.

Then we come to Thanksgiving. And this is the heart of what we are talking about. As we come before God in prayer and make our petitions and our requests humbly, then we offer thanksgiving to God.

Sometimes we are so downcast that it seems we have nothing to be thankful for or at least not in those moments, but truly the way out of the anxious, wrought up difficult emotions is to pray, ask, and then give Him thanks. So, we start with the seemingly small things or the things we often take for granted like breath in our lungs, the sun in the sky, and for most of us who may be reading this…the blessing it is to live in America. It may not feel like it sometimes when we watch the news, but we really are blessed to live in this country of freedom and opportunity.

Recently, I watched a video of a young man born in Africa into extreme poverty. When he was 6 years old he remembers cutting out pictures of food from magazines and eating the pictures while telling himself that he was enjoying those actual foods. How incredibly sad. He has since been delivered from poverty and now spends much of his time making food for others in need. Praise God! In another story, a woman in my previous small group from Russia told me that when she was a child they had to use newspapers or sometimes leaves from outside as their toilet paper because they didn’t always have money or access to basic necessities. Most people in America do not have it this badly. We can think of something to be grateful for when we think hard enough. Even if we thank Him for the things we don’t have that we wouldn’t want, that can be just as significant! And even if this is all we can do, if we do it with hearts oriented toward God in Thanksgiving, He honors that. He is after our hearts after all. Hearts surrendered to Him. Thanksgiving leads to a deeper gratitude which then leads to trusting that God is able to work good in ALL of our situations and redeem every hard thing that we go through, for our good and His glory. No part of our lives are ever wasted. God uses it all to grow us spiritually and produce good fruit in us.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 it reads, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

The apostle Paul’s words are not a command for us to be happy for everything that happens to us or that all the bad, pain or disappointments we may face are even part of God’s will for our lives. Rather, these words are meant to equip us with the secret to getting up and above our circumstances, good or bad and into the real of contentment. The fact is, Paul’s version of rejoicing is an act of the will, not a result of our circumstances. We have to be intentional about it. We have to search for and take note of reasons to be thankful right where we’re at. This sounds simple and it is, but it isn’t easy. We have to discipline ourselves and learn to interrupt our thoughts with the decision to be thankful and rejoice. If all you have to rejoice in is the Lord Himself, you’re in good company because the apostle Paul wrote this verse while in prison. In whatever circumstance you are in, just know you are not alone, others have been in similar situations and God never leaves you hanging. We have the recipe to contentment in any season or circumstance. We can allow God to fill our hearts with reasons to rejoice and be thankful. We can choose to give Him thanks and praise in the midst of the storms.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for giving me your Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of me to comfort, teach and draw me near to the heart of the Father. Bring all things to my remembrance as it relates to the things I am truly thankful for. Help me to focus on all of the good and not the negative. Thank you for providing the way out of a downcast soul by making a way for me to take every thought captive, cast my cares on you, and pray and lean in to your peace and joy that you have for me in every situation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ps. I have included a journal reflection page that I made for you to print at home. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you creat a list of some things you can be thankful for. It can truly be anything. Anything you see in nature, or one of God’s promises in the bible, a person that you love and care for, clean water to drink, or God himself. We all have something to be thankful for if we set our minds to it. Grace and Peace to you.
XOXO,
Amy

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