The Power of Being Thankful: 365 Devotions for Discovering the Strength of Gratitude (23 page)

Are you doing what you really believe you should be doing at this stage in your life, or have you allowed fear to prevent you from stepping out into new things—or maybe higher levels of old things? If you don’t like your answer, let me give you some good news: It is never too late to begin again!

Thankfully, you don’t have to spend one more day living a narrow life that is controlled by your fears. You can make a decision right now that you will learn to live boldly, aggressively, and confidently. You don’t have to let fear rule you any longer. It’s important to note that you can’t just sit around, waiting for fear to go away. There will be times when you have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is action in the presence of fear.

Father, I am thankful that I don’t have to live in fear. I pray that You will fill me with Your strength and courage to press through and overcome any fear or uncertainty I may face today.

There are dozens of things that happen during ordinary, everyday life, and we can enjoy them all if we just make a decision to do it.

Things like getting dressed, driving to work, going to the grocery store, running errands, keeping things organized, sending e-mails, taking the kids to practice, and hundreds of other things. After all, they are the things that life is made up of. Begin doing them with an attitude of gratitude and realize that, through the Holy Spirit, you can enjoy absolutely everything you do every day of your life.

Joy doesn’t come merely from being entertained, but from a decision to appreciate each moment that you are given as a rare and precious gift from God.

Father, thank You for the gift of life, and thank You for every activity that comes with that gift. I pray that You will help me find joy in each part of my day as I live for You. I thank You that I can choose to enjoy even the average, routine parts of my day.

Have you stopped to think about how much you have to be thankful for?

If you woke up this morning with more body parts that don’t hurt than those that do, you are blessed. If you have food, clothes, and a place to live, you are more secure than 75 percent of the world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or spare change at home, you are among the top 8 percent of the world’s wealthiest people. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you read this message, you are more blessed than two billion people in the world who cannot read.

Don’t overlook any blessing—thank God every day for His goodness in your life.

Father, help me to realize just how blessed I am. Thank You for my health, my home, my family, the advantages I have been given, and the very air I breathe. I choose to focus on what I have rather than what I don’t have. Thank You for my wonderful life.

Positive minds—minds full of faith and hope—produce positive lives. Negative minds—minds full of fear and doubt—produce negative lives. In Matthew 8:13, Jesus tells us that it will be done for us as we have believed. This doesn’t mean that you and I can get anything we want by just thinking about it. God has a perfect plan for each of us, and we can’t control Him with our thoughts and words, but if we want His plan, we should think and speak in agreement with His will and plan for us.

I encourage you to think positively about your life and be thankful for the good things God is doing and going to do. Practice staying positive in every situation that arises; even if you’re going through a difficult situation, stand in faith, believing God will bring good out of it as He has promised in His Word.

Father, help me to keep my thoughts and my words focused on You. I thank You that You have good things in store for my life. I trust You today.

Although we don’t behave perfectly all the time, it is possible for us to have a perfect heart toward God. That means that we love Him wholeheartedly, and we want to please Him and do what is right.

When we receive Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, He gives us a new heart and puts His Spirit in us. The heart He gives us is a grateful, pure, and perfect heart toward Him. I like to say that He gives us a new “want to.” He gives us a desire to please Him.

All God really wants is for us to love Him, and out of that love, do the best we can to serve and obey Him. If we do the best we can each day, even though our best is still imperfect, God sees our hearts and views us as perfect anyway because of His grace (undeserved favor and blessing).

I thank You today, Father, that You see the attitude of my heart. I know that You have given me a new “want to,” and with Your help, I am going to do my best to please You with my actions. I love You, Father, and I thank You for Your grace in my life.