Bring On the Peace and Joy!

I wasn’t feeling particularly ungrateful in this season of my life.  I have learned over time to find joy and contentment in all that life brings, and I trust God on a daily basis.  But maybe we never fully recognize our own soul issues . . . and gratitude is a soul issue.  At any rate, God has chosen in this, my 55^th year of kingdom life, to keep bringing the concept of thankfulness to my attention – through two of our three women’s Bible studies in the last year, as well as a book I’m currently reading quite by accident.  OK, Lord, I’m listening!

Of course, this isn’t new territory.  But it’s one of those things that we need constant reminding about – because life has a way of destroying thankfulness when we aren’t diligently pursuing it.  We know we are supposed to give thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18), but we aren’t sure the writer of that Scripture fully understood the “everything” we are experiencing!  I am encouraged when I remember that learning and practice aren’t negative responses, but rather valuable parts of the process.  Thanksgiving is not a natural response in fallen man; it must be learned over time, and practice makes perfect!

So here are some random yet connected thoughts that God has been re-teaching me in the past few months:

• Thanksgiving, peace, and joy are all interrelated.
• According to Philippians 4:6-7, thanksgiving activates peace, and the cure for anxiety is thankful prayer.  An ungrateful heart = an anxious heart without peace. 
• The way into God’s presence, which is where joy resides, is thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4).
• Producing peace and joy in my life isn’t my job, but choosing thanksgiving is.  God is in charge of giving me peace and joy – they are fruits of the Spirit’s work in my life when I choose to trust and be thankful.

 
I can’t say I didn’t know these things already; but most of us need reminding now and then.  Maybe I needed to remember that these truths aren’t just for the hardest parts of life.  Thanksgiving needs to be a way of life that we pursue EVERY day – not just on the hard days, but even on the routine, mundane ones.  The more we practice giving thanks when life is easy, the more natural it will be to give thanks when life is hard – because our hearts will have learned to see God’s hand in every part of our lives. 

As Job taught us, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b).  My new resolve is to make sure I am choosing EVERY DAY to look for things to thank God for!