Kelly It’s dark… literally, because it’s 7pm and its fall, but figuratively it is more than that as social media and news appear to be revealing the human heart. 2020 feels a bit like a dark room with no light switch – overwhelming, dark, chilling, isolating, but after 8 months my heart and my eyes have started to adjust. My flashlight is my relationship with Jesus and community with fellow believers and day by day continuing to seek his word and his truth. He’s the mainstay that is the only way to keep a grateful heart within my chest in this considerably heavy season.
How abundant are the good things you have stored up for those who fear you.
Psalm 31:19
I want to get practical for a moment, and not share “Christian-isms” that might be less genuine. So how do we fit a mindset of “grateful” into life? First and foremost, John 16:24 tells us “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” So, pray, ask God and the Holy Spirt to do a work in you that you might desire a grateful heart.
Another step might be to call a friend who you see has an abundantly grateful heart or lives from a place of contentment no matter the circumstance. Ask their secret. I’m grateful that as I was brought up my family focused on being thankful for what we were provided. We must first start small, look for it daily, and slow down. My son had a child’s devotional book that suggested we observe God’s creation and thank him for it with abundance.
Friend, do you understand that everything from the beauty in the changing leaves to the new iPhone 12 is only here by God’s design? Then, for the mind-blowing part, God ordains the timing of it all too! You’re meant to be in the exact place that you are and God has put before you everything you need in that second. So the next time you look up and see a heart in a cloud or you look down into a still puddle of water and it reflects the blue sky above you; pause, and be grateful that God’s design is all around us, providing proof of his control and dominion.