Episode 6 Gratitude Changes Everything

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Thank you for tuning in to I Cur Let's Pray Ministries. Together we'll lift each other up, speak life over every situation, and trust that God is working in every detail. Amen. Today we're going to talk about gratitude, changes everything. Gratitude is more than a feeling, it's a practice, discipline, even a form of resistance against negativity. When life feels lacking, gratitude quietly says, There is still something here. There is still something more that's going to come into my life that's going to change for my good. It doesn't mean everything is good, it doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means not everything is bad. Think about how easily the mind clings to what's missing. One problem can overshadow 10 blessings. How crazy is that? One problem was shut out everything that God has blessed us with before that one problem even occurred. But gratitude retrains our focus, it invites us to slow down and take inventory, not of what we wish we had and our wants, but of what we already hold on to. God has given us so much, and we need to be grateful for the little things. Amen. Gratitude softens our heart, it loosens comparisons, it brings contentment into the spaces that once felt empty in our lives. And often the more we practice it, the more we begin to see that our life holds more goodness than we realized. Today, I don't want you to rush past the little things. Sit with them, name them, write on a piece of paper, and let them matter in your life. I remember when I couldn't tie my shoes because I got the itis, which is polymyositis, inflammation of the muscles. And I remember when I couldn't tie my shoes for months. And the day I was able to bend over again to tie my shoes, I cried like a baby. Because when you're 40 years old, you don't think I would never tie my shoes again. You know what I'm saying? You like that's a blessing to be able to bend over and tie your own shoe. And when I was able to tie that shoe, I'm thinking, Lord, I thank you that I can bend over and tie my own shoe. Lord, I thank you. I can pull my pants up. Lord, I thank you. I can put my hair in a ponytail without putting my arm on the wall. We have to look at the little things in life that God covers us and blesses us and keeps us and provide for us. Amen. Today, please don't rush past the little things. Let God's voice matter in the small, still moments in your life. Psalms 104 states, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his holy name. Glory be to God. And I thank you, Lord, praising your name on this wonderful morning, glorifying your name on this magnificent morning because you are good. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this morning, oh God. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, good morning, good morning, good morning. Lord, we want to thank you for keeping us last night and waking us up this morning. Lord, we pray on this morning and every morning set forth that we focus on serving you through our service, serving you through our praise, serving you through our words, serving you through our worship, and serving you through our thanksgiving. Help us confess when we focus on the bad things versus focusing on the good things, Honey Father. We want to focus on your presence. We want to focus on your gift of life. Sometimes we overlook our blessings because we they're old ordinary and we forget that even ordinary things are gifts. Honey Father, help us to slow down today. Help us to recognize the goodness already in our lives, Honey Father. The things that we've taken for granted, the quiet ways you've been providing for us, the way you've been protecting us, the way you've been sustaining us, Honey Father. Help us to be still so we may be obedient to your voice and your will and your way. I pray. Help us to see you on this glorious morning. Help us to give you the first fruits of the day of praising you and thanking you and honoring you, Honey Father. Give us a grateful heart this morning, oh God, not just when things go well, but even in the moments that feel incomplete. Help us to be grateful in all things. Teach us, oh God, to say thank you with sincerity. Teach us how to say thank you, oh God, not just out of habit, but from awareness. Let gratitude reshape our thinking, Heavenly Father. Let it bring peace where there has been restlessness and contentment where there has been striving. Today, oh God, help us to choose to notice, to appreciate, and to give thanks for everything that we can see and even for what we cannot yet understand. Help us to see what you're doing, oh God. Help us to feel your presence. Help us to live through your word. Help us to focus on your on your word, Helly Father, because that's what builds up our faith. God help us to know that today is a day of thanksgiving and a day of praise. God, help us to be grateful for every little thing in our life, oh God. Help us be grateful through the valley of low moments. Because you say, Yay, though you walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That's what David said. For thou art with me, my rod and my staff that comforts me. So God, we are grateful that even when we're going through a battle, when we're going through dark times in our life, you are with us. You are our rod. You are our staff. You are our comforter. So God, on this day we say thank you, oh God. Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you're doing in our life. We appreciate you, oh God. We love you, oh God, and we just say thank you, thank you, thank you, oh God. So God, we say have your way on this day. Cover us by the blood of Jesus Christ and give us your traveling grace. It's on your dull and son, Jesus Christ's name. We pray. Amen. Amen. I know y'all just heard my dog bark. That's ginger. She wanted to say amen before I could get finished. But thank you, Lord, for this day. And I pray you all have a great day today. I pray today you smell more than what you did yesterday. I pray that you feel joy in your heart today. And I pray that you just have a spirit of thanksgiving today because God is with you, God is covering you, and God is speaking through spirit, through the word of Jesus Christ. Amen. So thank you once again for tuning in to ICare Let's Pray Ministries. Until we meet again tomorrow morning, I say amen, amen, amen. Glory be to God.