What are we thankful for?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Food, family, and no gift pressure. It concentrates my mind on blessings. What I have. What’s going well.

But the Lord’s been challenging me for years to thank Him for EVERYTHING. The good stuff and the messy bits. So, leading up to Thanksgiving I’m challenging myself, and I invite you to join me.

Let’s thank God for the bad stuff. Sound weird? Well it is. It’s counter-intuitive and opposite to what the human approach.

I know I personally feel more thankful for success than failures. And when challenges come I’m more likely to complain than praise.

But that I’ve experienced great transformation in my heart and spirit when I thanked God when it made no sense. When I’ve taken the step of faith to thank Him FOR the hard, He’s met me every time.

I believe when we thank Jesus for our sorrows we take ammunition out of the enemy's hands. We disable his taunting and accusations when we’re offering praise to the Lord over the very thing he wants to accuse us with. If we’re praising God for the hard, Satan can’t use the bad stuff to accuse God of being unloving.

It cures bitterness.

It grows faith.

It sheds light on darkness.

It defeats discouragement.

It believes God will turn loss to gain.

Want to join me?

I’m challenging myself to spend the month of November thanking the Lord for EVERYTHING. Since I don’t need as much encouragement to thank the Lord for the good stuff, I’m concentrating on the harder things and will focus each week up to the holiday on a different category.

This week: Sorrow

Life on this fallen planet is hard. I believe the Lord will redeem every sorrow someday and that the new heaven and earth will be a different experience.

But life is here. Now. In the mess. In the sickness and brokenness and grief. Can I trust Jesus here?

This week I’m thanking God for every sorrow.

Thanking the Lord for grief doesn’t mean we have to feel joy about it. It means we’re trusting Him with it. It shows He’s bigger than it. He holds us in it. He walks with us through it.

Write it Down

We’re forgetful people, so it’s useful to force ourselves to REMEMBER our thankfulness. I urge you to record every sorrow you thank the Lord for. Take a piece of paper and draw a cross on it. Write THANKSGIVING across the top and SORROWS across the bottom. Tape it up on the wall. All week write down things over which you grieve.

There’s no right or wrong here. They can be big or small items. They can be universal or specific to just you. But write each down on the cross. Give it to Jesus. AND THEN THANK HIM FOR IT.

Every time something else occurs to you, write it down and THANK HIM!

Every time you glance at the page, THANK HIM for what’s already written.

Ask the Lord to remind you of those hidden sorrows you carry like worn out baggage. Write them down and THANK HIM.

If you’d like a printable page with a cross on it, just sign the form below. You’ll be given access to a page on my website with all sorts of prayer helps as well as this sheet that you can print as often as you like.

Keep it up all week if you can. Come back here and leave a comment as you experience His peace and healing presence.

Or leave a sorrow or grief here and we will thank the Lord in faith along with you. Let’s help each other believe the Lord can and will use EVERYTHING. We can trust Him! Let’s take the first step of trust, which is THANKFULNESS.

Let’s Give Thanks!

Check back next week for a new challenge.

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people
it may increase thanksgiving,
to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4:15 ESV

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