Hello dear friends, welcome to another season of our experience with Christ. I’m glad to share with you on the topic for this season which is dealing with brokenness. I know it may sound strange that I have to mention gratitude when we are handling brokenness. They don’t seem to have a common relationship right? I though so too, but it does, it greatly does.
From my personal angle of experience, the past months have not come by so easily. There’s been series of issues, unprecedented issues that made me feel like God had turned His eyes away from me for a while. I began to wonder where I went wrong so I could ask for mercy. Of course we need to always check our lives to see if we are not living the consequences of our sins particularly when things get so hard with us.
You know after a thorough check and series of prayers for mercy and pardon it could feel like the broken pieces of my life were now being put together. Many times I prayed and had peace about the situation yet it wasn’t gone. The issues just stood there staring at me in the face, at some point I felt so frustrated that I could hardly find the right words to pray. During those moments I would just try to worship and acknowledge my creator, but to be honest with you, even in those times when I felt I was worshiping, I discovered myself already drowned in thoughts, thinking about the situation and how it was ever going to end if it was ever going to resolve.
I began to notice that the worry and fear brought so much anxiety and doubts in my mind. We know that when we give in to fear and worry it births the feeling of doubt, doubt in the presence of God in our lives, doubt in the ability of His power to deliver us from all situations. At least the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of the fact that so much worry in my mind meant I doubted God.
Time and again I would pray and repent of that thought, but sooner I find myself down that road again.
On one of such moments when I felt that way, I went down on my knees to pray, then the Spirit dropped this word in my mind GRATITUDE. I found myself thanking God for prayers i was yet to receive answers to, I found myself replacing my fears and worries with words of gratitude. I can’t say I’m completely out of that grip of fear and worry, but I can attest to the positive results I got in a very short time when I decided to change my thought pattern to be that of gratitude.
What did an attitude of gratitude make me learn?
1. I learnt to surrender my all to God. I was reminded of God’s word that says He is the same yesterday today and forever. (Mal 3:6)He had been my help in years past so why will He change now? I just tried to live a life f surrender
2. A grateful attitude made me discover I could trust God even when I had no clue of how He will work things out. He is dependable and reliable.(1Cor1:9)
3. A grateful mindset made me realize God loves me so much. In His promises to be with us through hard and easy times, I realized He truly was with me, giving the necessary strength to face all I had to face. His love reminded me of His steadfast promises(Matt28:20,Jn 3:16)
4. A grateful attitude made me realize that all I was going through was a necessary test or challenge to build me up and prepare me for a greater assignment. This made me think of the challenge with a less burdened mind.
5. With the grateful mind I could recount of all God’s wonders in my life. I remembered times when I didn’t really deserve His attention and love, yet He came through for me. It caused me to even make such prayers like, God even if you won’t hear me on this, I won’t bother much because you have answered and helped me a million times when I didn’t deserve your attention at all. You will remain God whether or not I get an answer and I will always love and trust you.
God remains God and should be acknowledged as God all the time, we shouldn’t only trust Him or be loyal to Him just when we need His intervention but we should carry that mindset that makes us appreciate Him even in those times when we are down.