This message has been on my heart for a while now and now that I have my laptop charger I am able to write to you guys as long as I want. I kind of took having my laptop, let alone my charger for granted instead of being thankful and cherishing that I had one at my fingertips so that I was able to share things with you all so easily. That's when I was noticing a lot of discontent people in my life lately including myself. This is when I decided to really disect it and not on my own understanding obviously because I was right along with them! So I went to look in the "Prosperous Life for Dummies" more commonly known as the Bible lol.
Thank God He speaks to us through His Word or we'd all be sitting in our own crap, right? Well the Bible speaks about prosperity and God's blessings all throughout! Look at how God had blessed Job with way more than what Job had before he went through life's tests and trials. What a nightmare!? Yet Job still persevered through it all even when everyone from his friends to his family discouraged his faith in God. They saw no reason in living for the very One who created them because a lot of horrible things were happening. Well just like them a lot of us seem to only be content when everything in life is going perfectly, but when things start going in a different direction than we want it to we start to complain about everything we DON'T have instead of focusing on everything we do have and everything that God has blessed us with in our lifetime. This is a simple and silly example, but instead of being thankful for and cherishing the time in my life where I had my laptop charger I was taking it for granted. It seemed like something so small to me when I had it at my fingertips, but when I didn't have it I was whining about it and wishing I had it.
I really had never thanked God for my laptop. I thanked people. I never really did put any thought into all that I had every day. I sort of breezed through life not even paying attention to these things, but then it took God shaking my life up a little bit to get my undivided attention and to teach me a lesson that I had forgotten once again. I was reminded that the secret isn't in what I have, what I don't have, where I am, where I'm not, how things are happening, or how things are not happening. It's being content in whatever I have or don't have, wherever I am or wherever I'm not, and however things are going or not going. The secret isn't just in my contentment, but in rejoicing and being thankful through it all. I am positive that every single one of you has something to be thankful for. Are you breathing? Did Jesus die on the cross for your sins? Does God love you? If you're reading this then the answer is obviously yes. So my word for you today is to replace complaints with thanks!
When we start to give thanks and we persevere in our thankfulness God will give us joy, unspeakable, unexplainable joy. It's the kind of joy that will grasp people's very core and make them wonder why you're "worse" off than them but still so much happier than them. It's that joy of the Lord that you feel that makes you stronger. When you give thanks you're also putting your trust in him. You feel the peace of the Lord because He helps you in your time of need no matter what it may be and I'm not talking about just because you don't have a laptop. I'm talking about any and every situation whether you barely have money to pay your mortgage or you're struggling to put food on the table, whether you're searching for a job or you don't like the one that you have, whether you feel consumed with depression or anxiety, or whether you just simply need to feel that you're loved. It's that very strength that can get you through even the worst of days and through it all He will bless you. If He cares enough to know how many hairs are on top of your head and how many tears that you've cried then He cares enough to help you in your time of need.
Philippians 4:11-13 - "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
Nehemiah 8:10 - "For the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Psalm 28:7 - "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."
