Being Thankful in the Tough Times

What a wonderful day we had learning more about how to be thankful, even in the tough times. We had one new guest and he seemed to enjoy himself. There were several raise their hand to acknowledge that they had received help from God today. What a blessing!

The scripture for today was Philippians 4:4-8. We can find at least 4 steps to being thankful in the tough times.

Step One: Worry about nothing. Easy to say but not so easy to live. With 40 % of worries never going to happen, and 30 % being from our past with nothing we can do about it, and 12 % about health concerns that never happen and !0 % that insignificant issues that only leaves 8 %. Th key is to live one day at a time.

Step 2: Pray about ever thing. Replace worry with prayer. God was not asking us to find time to pray, just the time we were spending on worry, turn to prayer. We learned that we can dump all our problems on Him. No matter what it is, God cares and wants us to drop them on Him. One study says people that go to church live 5.7 years longer, maybe because we choose to dump our worries on Him.
The insight: No problem is too big or small to pray about.

Step three: Thank God in all things. Our goal is a attitude of gratitude. The scripture says we can be thankful in all things as long as we believe that God is in control and no matter what I am going through, God's purpose is larger then the problem, God's power is more powerful then any problem and I can learn for anything.
Insight: Thanks and Giving go together.

Step Four: Think on right things. Instead of reading the newspaper and watching TV all the time, take some time to read the Bible. Put garbage in your brain you get garbage out. Want to be more like God, read the Bible and obey it.

What do you think?