Thankful

Psalm 100:4
Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and Praise His name.

To bad we only designate one day a year to be thankful. Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving. Family, food, football....the three "F's" of the Bynum clan. But shouldn't we be thankful every day? Shouldn't we be thankful for drawing breath and getting up this morning?

I cut grass yesterday, which isn't my most favorite thing to do.
But as I was navigating the yard, I really was thankful.  Thankful that I still was healthy enough to take care of our yard. Thankful that I still had my marbles and could make rational decisions (well, rational most of the time). The wind picked up and a breeze began to blow around me. Found myself be thankful for that, as it felt wonderful.

Too often we let the worries and problems of this world rob us of our ability to be grateful and thankful. We become mired down in a pit of depression, worry, fear, and sometimes even anger because we can't see beyond the day. When this happens, it's hard to be thankful. When our minds are weighed down under a burden of emotion, it's hard to see anything. I think maybe that is why God has given us hope.

I want to be clear in one thing.
Gratefulness and thankfulness is not a "pie in the sky-puppy dogs- unicorns-rainbows and lollipops" attitude. It is a realistic view of life. The good and the bad. But beyond everything we see is the hope of glory. That I have a Savior and Lord who has prepared a place for me, and that He is coming back to take me there so I can be with Him forever. I am not a citizen of this world. As Larry Norman said, "The world is in a mess...don't ask me who began it....I merely passing through I'm just a visitor to this planet."

II Corinthians 4:17-18
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 that we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Now I have a problem with this passage of Scripture.
Either it's true....
Or we've been lied to...
I tend to fall on the side that it is true. That I need to "Fix my gaze"...get my spiritual eyes working and look beyond this life, to the glory that awaits me. To not allow the devil and his dark rule to take away my spiritual sight by trying to get me to focus on my life problems.
I will turn my gaze to Jesus.
I can do this because I have been born again.
Not of my own doing, but because of what He has done for me.

I find it no coincidence that all this "thankfulness" and "gratefulness" is starting to kick in, what with this weekend being Easter. Jesus' death and resurrection made salvation and the Holy Spirit available to everyone who would come to Him. I don't know about you, but I'd buy that for a dollar. 

God on you.....
Mbb