The Power of Thanksgiving

Colossians 3:17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (NIV)

1Thessalonians 5:16-18 16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

Ephesians 5:19-2019Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV)

Philippians 4:4-74Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

All throughout the Bible we are encouraged to "be thankful" or "give thanks". No matter what we are doing or what we're going through we're told to be thankful. We are even told not to stress or be anxious about ANYTHING, but instead pray and give thanks to God.

Thanksgiving is a powerful exercise. The discipline of gratitude/thankfulness is not an easy one to develop, but its power is hugely underestimated.

There is a reason that we are commanded to be thankful, but first I have to lay a foundation...

Pastor Rick Warren once said that life is like a set of railroad tracks. One track represents the positive, the good, and the blessings in your life; the part of your life that is going well. The other track represents the negative, the hard, that bad, the difficult, the tragic, and the dark experiences in your life; the part of your life that is not going ideally.

Each rail is a constant in your life. There is no time in your life that you don't have something positive to be thankful for and there is no time in your life that you don't have something negative to be working on.

Life is not a bunch of hills and valley with high points and low points. The positive and the negative are a constant rail in our life each having various large and small experiences or events on this journey of life.

When we face various trials and hard times on the negative rail it's easy to become focused on the problem. By doing this we tend to loose sight of the positive rail. By focusing entirely on the negative rail, no matter how big or small our problem is in reality, it always becomes bigger in our minds than it really is. Our perception becomes skewed and in this condition it's always darker, always harder than the reality.

When we focus on the negative it begins to be all we see. It takes over our life and becomes our life. A negative problem in one area becomes a negative life, most of the time unnecessarily.

The Bible tells us "as a man thinks in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV). In other words what you think about all the time is what you will become. It also says, "the tongue has the power of life and death" and that there is "fruit" from our mouth that we will have to eat. (Proverbs 18:20-21 NIV)

So, the more we think and speak on all the negative, miserable, hard, and dark experiences the more we get of those things. Those thoughts and words are like little seeds that grow more of the same. So, we truly do become negative miserable people with hard dark miserable lives.

Thinking and speaking negative all the time is like going around blowing out candles in a dark room with no other lighting. Each negative, critical, miserable, and dark thought blows out another candle until pretty soon you cannot see the reality of your situation and your life really is dark. The darkness clouds your perception and judgment, so you aren't making the best decisions about your situation.

By no means am I encouraging you to ignore your problems. I'm simply saying keep them in perspective and don't let them consume your life. How do we do that? By thanksgiving!

We need to take the time to remember the positive rail that is also constantly running in our life. We need to never forget the good that is going on in our life.

As we take the time to think and speak words of thanks for the good in our life each word and thought is like lighting a candle in that dark room. The more thoughts and words of thanks you have the more candles you are lighting until each room of your life is lit up brightly, you are warmed by the glow, and you see clearly the reality of your situation and are able to deal with it the best way possible.

Each positive thought and word is a seed planted which will grow and produce more positive experiences.

Gratitude/thankfulness makes a difference. Just try it with your spouse, child, waitress, or cashier. Say thank you and see what response you get. Do this with God and it's an even bigger response.
When you are thankful you are releasing positive spiritual forces/energies into your life that bring life, light, warmth, healing, health, love, wealth, all the things we're looking for.

An attitude of gratitude is hard to develop for some, but never impossible. Like most things we have to discipline/train ourselves to think and speak in a new way. It may seem hard at first, but it's completely worth it and it gets easier and one day it'll be your nature. Just keep working on it. Start saying thank you to people and to God when you are blessed. When you're in conversation with family, friends, or co-workers don't sit around criticizing and speaking about all the ugly stuff of life; instead start talking about the good things and all the blessings you have.

Remember! I am NOT saying bad things aren't happing. I'm not saying the negative experiences aren't big, bad, ugly, tragic, or whatever descriptive you want to use. What I am saying is that none of these experiences have to ruin the rest of your life causing you to live in a cesspool of darkness, bitterness, hurt, anger, and misery. You can be free from all that no matter what you've been through if you'll approach your circumstance the way Jesus tells us to. Jesus said, "He who the Son sets free is free indeed." (John 8:36)

When you do things God's way, you get God's result.