I hope you read the first post in this Redeeming Thanksgiving series last week. In it I explained why I feel the need to take the month of November and dedicate it to learning everything we can about living a thankful life. This week it’s all about how to restore hope and joy through gratitude.
The practice of giving thanks has a much grander role in the life of a believer than one celebratory day a year could encompass. Still, that one day is special to me, and it has been abused in the past. I want to redeem this wonderful holiday, or rather, I want to allow my great and mighty God to redeem it.
I hope you’ll join me this November as we learn about all the fantastic benefits of a thankful heart, and do the work together to set gratefulness ablaze!
*Here is the whole Redeeming Thanksgiving Series – How to Praise God in Difficult Times.
God’s Promises Joy to His People
It’s no secret that God wants his people to be joyful. In John 15:11, Jesus tells His disciples, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
In fact, God promises joy to those who are following Him. In Galatians 5, joy is listed second, behind only love, as a product of the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers.
But sometimes life just sucks, and it can be really hard to be joyful through those times. Especially when our specific situations start to feel hopeless.
Hope is powerful. It’s what keeps us going through difficulties. So how do we restore hope and find our strength again when we feel completely defeated?
As I’ve studied Scripture, one answer in particular has practically jumped out to me again and again – Remember what God has done, and THANK HIM for it.
Why Living a Thankful Life is Important
As we study Scripture, we are reminded how persistent the sins of forgetfulness and ingratitude have been throughout history. It seems to be human nature to quickly forget our blessings. We are prone to look forward towards what we still want rather than back at what we’ve received, and we seem bent on denying God the praise He deserves. Living a thankful life is simply not in our nature.
Romans 1:20-23 – For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
Ingratitude in the Bible
The Israelites witnessed mighty miracles again and again from the time of Joseph, through the days of Christ. Yet, again and again, they seemed to almost immediately dismiss His works and complain about what they believed was still missing. God warns us not to do the same in Hebrews,
Hebrews 3:6-9 But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested Me in the wilderness. There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.”
I can’t speak for you, but unfortunately, I can kind of relate to the Israelites. When I allow myself to recognize that truth, I’m ashamed. God has been active in my life since I was a little girl. When I take the time to notice, I can see His work all over it. His steadfast love, His tender care, and His mighty miracles throughout.
Of course, there have also been bitter heartaches, inexplicable betrayals (not from God, but from others), undeserved abuses, and unfortunate circumstances peppered throughout my life.
It’s so easy for me to set my sights on those things. I am so prone to keep my focus tight around the pain and use that as fuel to fire my barrage of grievances against His goodness. Shame on me! A dearly loved daughter of the Lord God Almighty should be living a thankful life!
Living a Thankful Life
I’m learning that it’s all a matter of focus. I know it sounds over-simplified, but I don’t think it really is. We get to choose whether we will count our blessings or our calamities. It’s up to us whether we will be content or contentious. Living a thankful life is really just a choice we each have to make.
Paul reminds us how in Philippians, and Nehemiah helps us better define the answer.
Philippians 4:11-13 – …for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Nehemiah 8:10 – …Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!
In other words, we CAN make our way through this life being content (no matter the circumstances) through the strength of Christ. And that strength comes through the joy of the Lord!
There it is again: joy. The answer to finding contentment is to be filled with joy, but we still haven’t nailed down how we attain joy.
How to Find Joy
Psalms 92:1-5
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High.
It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning,
Your faithfulness in the evening,
accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp,
and the melody of a lyre.
You thrill me, Lord, with all You have done for me!
I sing for joy because of what You have done.
Oh Lord, what great works You do!
And how deep are Your thoughts.
Joy is the product of a thankful heart. Plain and simple. When we take stock of God’s abundant blessings, joy will spill out. Every time.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has met people who exude joy in the midst of unthinkably difficult circumstances. Isn’t there such a sense of trust and hope about them? They are people who know and trust their God. They are people who draw others in, and make them wonder where their strength comes from. I want to be one of those people! I want to overflow with the joy of the Lord, and I want that alone to be my sustaining source of strength!
1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
How to Restore Hope by Living a Thankful Life
It all sounds lovely doesn’t it? But there’s still this one thing: When life gets messy and I’m having a really hard time finding the positives to focus on, where do I find my hope? Where do I start my thanksgiving?
May we never forget, no matter what else, we have the hope of eternity to cling to!
We have been saved by grace through faith. No matter how tough this life gets, eternity is a lot longer! So let’s start there. May our salvation be enough to make us proclaim, as the Psalmist did above, “You thrill me Lord with all You have done for me!”
Scriptures about our Hope
2 Corinthians 4:13-18 – But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to Himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. T
hat is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Psalms 100
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and His faithfulness continues to each generation.
14 thoughts on “How to Restore Hope and Joy by Living a Thankful Life”
AMEN! Lovely reminder that gratitude is key to JOY! Thank you sister in Christ.
“We are prone to look forward towards what we still want rather than back at what we’ve received..” This statement is so true and so easy to catch yourself doing! Thanksgiving, contentment, and joy all go hand in hand. Great read! 🙂
Thank-you Sammi!
You are a Awesome teacher through writing. I love how you pointed out that the second is JOY, after love in Corinthians. That is how much God wants us to have JOY, wow!
Oh my, thank-you so much Carmen! That means a lot to me!
Joy is the product of a thankful heart! All too often I focus on what I still want rather than what I’ve received. What a great reminder. Thank you for sharing. Have a blessed day.
Thanks for stopping by Valerie! So glad you were encouraged. God bless.
Wow, Esther! What a good word. This will preach! 🙂 I pray the Lord helps me count my blessings instead of my calamities. It’s so much easier to have a pity party and focus on the latter. It’s what the enemy wants. Thanks for this reminder!
So glad you enjoyed it Karen! God bless!
Currently in the midst of God uncovering all my wounds that I, in fact, asked him to uncover to grow me in Him, but the enemy is preying on every part of the pain. It hurts and I’m physically fighting my body every day to not lash out at God due to the uncomfort. It seems like even when I know the truth the enemy is trying so hard to disprove it. I needed this post more ways than not. Thank you.
Oh, I praise the Lord to be used to encourage you Reatta! I certainly understand that place. I have been there many times. It is so hard to hold on to our faith when life hurts. It’s so hard to silence the lies of the enemy that tell us God has abandoned us or forgotten us. At least, it is for me. But they are lies, and even though it’s so very difficult, thankfulness IS the way out of that trap. Prayed for you just now. May God be near!
Being content and remembering how God has led us in the past will most certainly make us thankful. Even when man fails us, He never ever forsakes us. Tenderly waits for us to come back to His fold. In Him we experience great joy and restorations.
Last week I wrote about this topic as well. You will be blessed by that.
Blessings
Esther, this post resonated deeply with me! God has been teaching me a similar lesson about how serious he takes ingratitude.
“No matter how tough this life gets, eternity is a lot longer!” Yes and amen! I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here! If we allow ourselves to only see the pain or sadness we maybe experiencing right now, it’s nearly impossible to feel thankful. Our eyes have to be fixed on Him and eternity.
Yes. This has been so huge for me lately. God has shown me again and again that even if life stays hard until the day I die, He is still good, He is still faithful, His love is still great, and this life is but a breath. I am holding on to that on the bad days!