Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ~Colossians 3:15 (NIV)
Being thankful isn’t always an easy thing to do, especially in the so called “little” things in life. We are capable of overlooking so many blessings and so many people that are being a blessing to us because of our self-focus and hectic lifestyles. We don’t always notice when people go out of their way to do something nice for us or when someone is actually biting their tongue because of the way we are acting. Peace rules in a thankful heart and leaves no room for discontent. But chaos distracts us from the Lord’s best for our lives and chaos rises when we let our pace offset our peace. When we try to squeeze more activity in than we are actually given time to accomplish we lose focus. When we lose focus, we don’t see the blessings of the Lord and the blessings from others. Many of us operate in such haste we don’t even take the time to ask Him what He thinks about any given situation. We don’t understand that He wants to be a part of every aspect of our lives. Seeking the Lord’s counsel is seeking His wisdom and revelation. When you pray and ask for the Lord for His guidance, you can be confident He will direct your steps. Do you have peace about what you are doing today? How about this weekend? Have you consulted the Lord about your plans? Many people don’t because they think He is going to tell them to go to the inner city and hand out food this weekend. After all, religion screams you aren’t a good Christian if you aren’t spending every minute of every day doing something religious! But that isn’t how our Savior operates. He puts all kinds of desires and dreams in our hearts, and He wants us to live them out. As we do, He uses us right in the middle of life! Have you ever stopped to wonder what letting the peace of Christ ruling in your heart would look like? Well, it would start with having a thankful heart!
The Lord tells us in Ephesians 6:11 to “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (NIV) You can rest assured that the devil has a scheme to distract you from what you need to be thinking about and what you need to be doing today. He knows if you slow down enough to take a look at what’s going on around you, you might just be thankful for all the Lord has done in your life and you might just want to bless the Lord right back by being a blessing to someone He puts in your path. A thankful heart is a happy heart. Proverbs 15:15 tells us “For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.” (NLT) That word despondent is just a big 50 cent word that really just means “hopeless”. Is your heart hopeless or happy? It’s easy to tell according to scripture. Is your life a continual feast or does every day seem to bring more trouble? If trouble is on the menu for today it might be time to start thanking the Lord and thanking some people who are close to you. Take a count of how many times you show appreciation today. If the count is low, raise it up and start praising God for the feast He has prepared for you.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessing. ~Psalm 23:5 (NLT)
Who and what are you thanking God for today?
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