How to find real joy in Jesus (even in difficult seasons) | Season 9 Ep 8

What if gratitude wasn’t a mood you chase, but a strategy you practice when life feels thin? We open Psalm 34 and find David praising after trouble, not before it, showing us a path to real deliverance, steady joy, and a refuge that holds when plans fall apart. 

 When you’ve done all you can, seeking the Lord is not a last resort—it’s first wisdom. We also get real about the week ahead: some will feast, some will grieve, some will feel alone. The good news is that sufficiency is not a sale price; it’s a promise. Those who look to Him are radiant, and those who trust lack no good thing.

If this spoke to you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a quick review so more people can find these moments of hope.

Transcript

Welcome And Thanksgiving Framing

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Hey all, thank you for joining us here at Grab the Faith, where we try to grab the faith and run with it. Join us as we try to learn a little more, grow a little more, and live a lot more. I'm your host, Bobby Gentry Goodwin. Stay tuned for this week's episode.

Call To Praise And Gratitude

Reading Psalm 34

David’s Deliverance And Our Prayer Superpower

Taste And See: Thanksgiving Metaphors

Word Of The Week And Closing Prayer

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Good morning, good morning. It's Bobby here. Another week. We only have a couple weeks left of doing these live streams. And it is a pleasure to be with you this morning. Welcome to our Wednesday Word of the Week for our Bible study. And listen, today has been already jumping off of me. It is early here. I'm already late, but I just did not want to miss coming before you and spending a little time in the Word of God. This has been such a blessing to me, and I hope it's been a blessing to you. And it is Thanksgiving week. So we can't just come to Thanksgiving on Thursday without giving him a little praise on Wednesday. So that's what I'm here to do is give him a little praise on Wednesday. Are you ready to praise him with me? Are you ready to lift the Lord up with me and give him some glory on this morning as we start our day? Well, this week we are going to be couching in a very, very uh familiar passage of scripture. So if you've ever been to anybody's church anywhere, you have, or at least the Baptist church, let me say, you have heard this scripture. And so we're gonna just couch here for a brief second this morning, and we're gonna run on and see what the end is gonna be, okay? But I hope I'm able to give you a word that you can hold to your heart, hold to your mind as you go into the Thanksgiving holiday and also the few days that we have outside of that, just to remember who God is and who he has been to you. Has God been good to you? Has God been good to you? Has God been good to you? Well, if he's been good to you, you ought to give him a little praise and give him a little glory. You did not get to where you are by yourself. You do not have the things that you have by yourself. God has shin his light upon you. I want you to know that. Just breathe in because you are breathing his very breath this morning. He did not have to wake you up, but he did. And for that I am glad. So thank you for being with me early, early, early, 6 a.m. as we give him a shout of praise. Let's go to Psalms 34. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them as we read the word of the Lord, which says this I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak of his praises. I will boast only in the Lord. Let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord's greatness. Let us exalt his name together. I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all of my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy. No shadow of shame will darken their faces. In my desperation, I pray, and the Lord listened. He saved me from all my troubles. For the angel of the Lord is a guard. He surrounds and defends all who fear him. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his godly people. I'm gonna say that again. Don't let that miss your hearing. Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. May the Lord add a blessing to his word this morning. Listen, hold that word in your heart. I don't know if you have money for Black Friday shopping or not. I don't know if you are going over to family who want you at their house or not, or you may not have no place to go or no food to eat. But listen to this word of the Lord this morning. Fear the Lord, you God, you, his godly people. Even as we read Psalms 34 in the beginning, I will bless the Lord at all times. It don't say in good times, it don't say in bad times, it says at all times. As we read this word this morning, I want you to hold within your hearing not my voice, but the voice of David, this king, David, who came to this passage after escaping a very troublesome situation. You know what? And I just want to share with you. I don't know if you've been in situations, but I have been in situations, just what this word says, where I've had to call on the Lord. I've asked him for something and he heard me. He listened to me, and even better than listening to me, he answered me and delivered me. That is the lens that David is coming from this morning. He had a troublesome situation and he did what he could do. Because sometimes, I don't know about you, if you may get in a situation where you've done all you can do, and the only thing left you can do is fall to your knees and pray and go before God with the concerns of your heart. Go before God with your grief for those that you have lost. Go before God because you don't have what you need. Go before God with the pain that is in your spirit. Go before God because you have done all that you can do, but you pull out that superpower. I want to tell you, this is a superpower because you're tapping into a source. Even when you have limited power, there is someone you can go before that has all power. And as you tap into all power, that's tapping into your superpower. Anyone watch a Marvel movie and see Superman or see Iron Man? And it looks like they have tremendous power, but they still have humanity. Now, this is a movie here. This is not recover, this is not real life. But I what I'm talking about is real life. David lived it. He tapped into the source that had all power. And he's ministering to us in song, letting us know that listen, when you tap into the Lord, you tap into prayer, God listens. But not only does he listen, people of God, not only does he draw near to you, people of God, he delivers. Please hear that this morning, that we serve an all-powerful God, an all-knowing God who has everything, heaven and earth in his hands, and he shall deliver. Tap into your superpower. I know you may be struggling, but tap into your superpower. I know things may even sometimes seem bleak. Tap into your superpower. I know you don't know what the end is gonna be. Tap into your superpower and rest in him, knowing that he who holds the world in his hands, he who loves you better than anybody else, he who has all power can deliver you. Listen to Psalms 4. Taste and see. Don't just listen to me, don't just listen to somebody else. You taste it. You know, as we go into Thanksgiving, we gonna taste that dressing, okay? We're gonna season it, we're gonna stir it up, and we're gonna taste it before we put it in an oven. Why do we taste? We taste to see if it's good. When we get over that pot of greens, and as we season it and throw in that garlic and throw in those onions and throw all those seasoning in and stir it around, we're gonna take our thumbs and taste, just to see if it's good. Well, I'm here this morning reading this word of the Lord, letting you know, taste and see that the Lord is good. Don't just taste that dressing, don't just taste those greens, don't just taste that mac and cheese. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Because you will find something, you will find that the Lord is so good that he's ready to be served up in your life into the lives of those you love. Listen, that's all I have for you this morning. Taste and see that the Lord is good, and if you're struggling, take refuge in him. That means to hide yourself in him. Because if you hide yourself in him, you're in the best hands that you could ever be in. We're gonna end this morning with a word of prayer, and listen, as we end in a word of prayer, I want you to hold the Wednesday word of the week in your heart, which is praise. Don't forget to praise, praise him, praise him, praise him. Listen, Jesus, bless his savior. The song says, He's worthy to be praised. If you don't know that, taste and see, taste and see, but hear me. Walk on with this word of the week. Praise, praise one who is praiseworthy. Let's go before God in prayer and you run on and have a beautiful Thanksgiving. If you have the capacity, please bow your heads with me as we go to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, and above all we could ever ask or think. Father, we come to you this morning. Lord, we want to celebrate Thanksgiving. But before we do that, we want to give you thanks. We want to give you glory. We want to give you honor because you alone are worthy to be praised. You sit high and look low. Then for that, we are grateful, Lord God. We can always come to the throne of grace, where we will find refuge, where we will find favor, where we will find all that we need, because all that we need rests in you. Lord, let us not forget what you have done in years before. Let us not forget what you are doing even yet now. Your faithfulness has been with us day in and day out. Oh, if we could just learn to be faithful like you. Oh, if we could just learn to tap into the power that you hold. Oh, if we could just learn who you are in our suffering. Oh, if we could just taste and see how good you are, that we can come to you with our every need. For you are good, for you are kind, for you are merciful, for you are God. And Lord, we thank you this morning. We thankful you for your faithfulness, even when we have not been faithful. We thank you for standing with us even when we haven't stood for you. We thankful that you called us out, for we are the call of the living God, set apart to do things not on our own, but do it with you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for those that are still with us. Some have gone on to be with you, but there are some still with us. We thank you, Lord God, that we are clothing in our right mind, Lord. We thank you, Lord, that we have all we need in you. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. We thank you, Lord, for that you we can stand steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in your word. Lord, keep us. Lord, keep us as we strive to get closer to you, Lord. Keep us, Lord, be with us as we learn of you. So at the end of it all, Lord God, we can stand before you with our hands lifted, knowing that you, only you, has brought us to where we need to be. And that is in your presence. It's in Jesus' name we pray.