Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, November twenty-ninth. When something bad happens, the last thing most of us want to say is thank you. But today's podcast reminds us that a thankful heart focuses our minds on God. Do you have a thankful heart? Would you consider yourself a thankful person?
Well, maybe you never thought much about that. You think, well, I am thankful, but about what and to whom? What is the motivation, what is the real motivation for being genuinely thankful? When I think about all the things that God does for you and me every single day, He's the one who keeps your heart beating. He placed within you a subconscious mind, this awesome something inside of us that keeps the heart beating, the blood flowing, the eyes seeing, and the ear hearing, and the movements and all the things. Everything God has made this awesome, fantastic body of ours and atop all that often is to be saved and have Him living on the inside of us and the promise of heaven, the promise of a presence, the promise of all our needs being met and our prayers being answered.
Wow, what kind of God is that? He is a God for which you and I should be absolutely eternally grateful. And so when the Scripture says in our passage here, in this hundredth Psalm, shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing.
The Lord Himself, He's God. In other words, when people drag in the church, there's something wrong. When you think about coming into the Lord's house, and with all this fantastic music and singing and praising the Lord God, our gratitude, our thanksgiving, it spills over into our music and the way we try to sing. Then, of course, in our prayers, look, if you will, and you know this part probably by heart, in Philippians the fourth chapter. Notice when he's talking about prayer and anxiety and so forth, listen to what he says in this fourth chapter in the sixth verse. He says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.
That is, thanksgiving should be a part of our prayer life. Then I think about the spiritual battles that you and I deal with every day. Look, if you will, in First Corinthians the fifteenth chapter, and as he's been talking about the resurrection, and then if you'll notice as he comes and speaks about death and death has lost its sting, and here's what he says. He says, oh death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, in our spiritual battles, and we all have them, we should, listen, we should be expressing gratitude. Thank You, God, that in Your wisdom You allowed me to be tested like this. Thank You, God, that You're in this with me. And somebody says, well I know the Bible says in everything, give thanks, but certainly he couldn't mean everything.
Yes, he does. Somebody says, well, how could he mean everything? So let's take the apostle Paul who was being stoned to death in Lystra and they'd left him for dead, thought they'd wiped him out.
And what happens? This is the Paul who says, in everything give thanks, so this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. In other words, how could he give thanks? I can see why Paul would be giving thanks. He'd be giving thanks, first of all, that he was counted worthy to be persecuted for Jesus' sake. He would be thanking God that he knew the truth.
Thanking God for the awesome testimony he was having by being persecuted by those who were watching because Paul knew the impact of the death of Stephen when he stood, kept the clothes, watched Stephen stoned to death the kind of impact that it was having. The truth is every spiritual battle you and I can have, listen, in everything that comes our way, we, listen, we can express gratitude to God the way we look at it. And I'm going to show you in a few moments the kind of impact that kind of heart has in every aspect of our life. When I think about how that works in a person's life and, for example, look in Colossians chapter two for a moment. And this is just daily living.
I mean, this is just living day after day and some days in our lives are not all as much as exciting as some others. But listen to what he says. He says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. That is, our daily walk should be in our relationship to Him. Having been firmly rooted and now built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. That is, our daily life should be a life of thanksgiving, of giving thanks to Him, of a thankful heart. A thankful heart is going to express itself in different ways. And then, of course, if you wrap it all up, go to First Thessalonians first, chapter five, seventeenth verse, this fifth chapter of First Thessalonians, and he says in everything, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And Paul not only said it, but he also practiced it. And for example, in Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty, he says, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even our Father.
Now, what's all that about? I mean, this giving thanks, what I want you to see is this, there's not a single area of your life and mind in which a thankful heart should be missing. We should be thankful in every, in expressing that thanksgiving. You see, when you and I understand the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus, what we have in Him, and our awesome privilege of having an intimate relationship with Him, our heart ought to be like this overflowing spring, this fountain of thanksgiving, because everywhere you turn and you think about reality, we have so much to be grateful for and so little to be complaining about. And when my heart is the heart of gratitude, it's going to impact every aspect of my life.
Now, let's look at the ways that happens, because it happens in a very clear way. And when I think about how it impacts our life, it impacts our life for good. And I'll say right up front, people who have a thankful heart are happier. People who have a truly thankful heart are healthier.
You know why? I'm going to show you in a moment. It impacts every aspect of your life.
Now, look at this for a moment. How does it impact us? Well, first of all, it keeps me constantly aware that I'm walking in His presence. In other words, if my heart's thankful, I'm constantly aware that I'm walking in His presence. Therefore, it motivates me to want to live a godly life. A thankful heart is a motivation to godliness. I'm aware that I'm walking in His presence, no matter what else is going on.
A second way it impacts us is this. And that is, it motivates us to want to look for His purpose in our life, in situations and circumstances. In all of our circumstances, you can be the most committed Christian there is, and there are going to be difficulties, there are going to be hardships, trials, tests, you name it, temptations, they're going to be there. But if my heart is a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving to God, what's going to happen? I'm going to be looking for a purpose in everything that happens. And I personally, when I see something going on in someone's life or I hear about it, my first response is, God, what's behind that?
What's Your purpose in that? In other words, God doesn't do anything just scattering out circumstances. But there's a specific reason He allows things to happen in life. Good things, things that we call bad. Good things because, listen, He intends when we look at them to see that He has a purpose, and if He has a purpose, it's always a good purpose. So, it's going to impact the way I look at the circumstances.
The third thing it's going to do is this. It's going to help me bring my will and the submission to His will when it's things I don't understand. And there are situations and circumstances I don't understand. I don't understand why God allows certain things to happen.
And when somebody says, Well, I can tell you why that happened. There's no one who knows all the ways and all the reasons, the ways God operates sometime in people's lives. People hurt that you think, God, why would you let that person hurt that way? But our thankful heart is able to do what?
Is able to look for the purpose. And sometimes, watch this carefully, sometimes the pain in someone else's heart, God will use to work in our heart. In other words, God doesn't waste any sorrows and He doesn't waste any pain and He doesn't waste any suffering.
He always has a purpose. And it affects people that you and I will never know. You and I go through circumstances and difficulties and hardships. People see, they watch, they carefully observe how we respond and what happens.
It impacts them either for good or not so good. Then, of course, it reminds us of our continuance dependence upon Him. You see, a person who is genuinely thankful isn't prideful and cocky and arrogant. People who are prideful, cocky and arrogant, they're not thankful because you know what life's wrapped up? Life's all wrapped up about them, it's them. The truth is, life is all about Jesus. Life's all about God the Father. And as we said in the very beginning, in all these things that we mentioned, these blessings, these things we have reason to be grateful for, this is what He's doing, not what we are doing. And the truth is, if my heart is genuinely thankful, there's no room for arrogance and pride and prominence and prestige and all the things that people brag about.
You know what? The truth is, every single one of us walk on the same level. We're all the recipients of the grace of God. In God's eyes, there are no big shots and little shots. The truth is, we are all saints. Listen, we all have been sinners saved by the grace of God. We've been made saints.
We all have His inheritance and we have been adopted into the kingdom of God, a narrow part of His family. That's not what we've done. That's what He's done, and so it keeps us conscious of that. Then of course, it also helps me see how dependent upon I am in times of suffering. And suffering is a difficult time to be grateful. And you know, I have to admit myself, there are times when I've been through some things and I've thought, God, now I know what the Word of God says. I'm going to be honest with you.
I know what the Word of God says, and I know what I've preached to others. And Lord, I want to practice this the best I can, but I'm not doing very good right now. And so there are times that are very, very difficult for us to give thanks. But you know what? Watch this.
Here's what I discovered. You don't give thanks when you feel like it. You give thanks when you don't feel like it, so before long you'll be feeling like it. Because that is exactly what happens. When you deliberately, willfully begin to thank Him, it is amazing what happens to your emotions. They change.
That's the awesome power and the impact. Listen, words of thank you. I thank You, Father. I don't feel like it, God.
I don't like any of this. I change it, but I just want to thank You anyway. I just want to praise You and thank You for what I'm going through because You're allowing it to happen. You're trusting me with it.
You've got something in mind I don't understand. I'm still telling You, God, I don't like it, but I'm telling You, Lord, that I'm grateful. In other words, you say, well, that's mind over matter.
No, it's not, because there'll be some matters your mind can't handle. The truth is, it is a matter of verbal expression of the truth. You are thankful to God. Then I think about the kind of witness we have. Is it not true that when you and I go in through difficulty and things are really tough and your friends know it and other people know it and they see how you respond and they see you with a heart of joy no matter what, and you're able to say, you know what, I don't really like this, this is very painful, but I'm thankful to God because I know being the sovereign God that He is in my heavenly Father, He's only going to allow my life what's good because here's what He says. He says, He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. And therefore, if God is allowing this in my life, He's allowing it for purpose.
And He said, He'll cause it to turn out to my good, so therefore, the only thing I can honestly do and be true to myself is to thank Him for it. I don't like it. It's painful. It's hurtful. I'm thanking Him anyway. One of the greatest times of impacting witness in your life and mine is when we're hurting.
We're going through pain. And then we express gratitude and thanksgiving to God and say, you know, He's in this in some fashion. I don't know why it happened, but I know He has a purpose. You see, people who live without a purpose, they can't be happy. You can't be happy, you can't be contented. Listen, you can't be thankful if you're living a purposeless life because God has put purpose in every single person's life if they're willing to listen to Him and if they're willing to abide by Him. Then I think about how this attitude of thanksgiving, it makes us attractive, really. Because here's what happens. A thankful heart drives anxiety and fear out of my life.
Drives it out and what is it replacing with? Peace and a sense of joy and contentment. Sometimes it's very difficult to be content. But here's what I've discovered. If I voice the term, if I voice the words of being thankful and grateful to God, it's amazing how that changes. The Bible says that kindness is attractive. That a man or a woman who is kind is attractive.
Is that not true? Sure it is. And a person who is thankful, a person who is thankful is going to be kind. And so, it impacts everybody around us. Then, naturally, what it does is it keeps my focus on Him in these difficult circumstances. In other words, if I ponder mostly what's hurting me or what's causing me discomfort or whatever, if that's where my focus is, that's how I'm going to be responding. But if my focus is upon Him, God, here's what You said. I'm getting in a word, and Lord, I'm having a difficult time. Here's what You said, thank You very much, Lord. Thank You for reminding me of that.
What happens? Things change. Listen, you want to change your whole environment. You may be in the same household. You may be in the same situation, but your thankful heart can change the very atmosphere. That's the power of your heart. It's the power of your disposition.
It's the power of your words. When they come from a heart, that is absolutely true. So, the Bible has a lot to say about a thankful heart. But one of the things it does that really blesses me is that it energizes us. When a person is thankful, there's something that goes on inside of us.
You're energized. And a thankful heart is a happy heart. I believe it's a healthy heart. And it's the kind of heart that best represents the Lord Jesus.
And a person with a thankful heart is a person who's had the kind of experience with the Lord Jesus Christ that's transformed their life, that these things that we're talking about become evident in their life. You want to be attractive to people? It's not what you wear. Listen, you can wear the finest cloth and people can't stand to see you. Isn't that true?
Amen? Or you know what? You can wear the best you have and it's not very good at all. And compared to some other people, people just love you to death.
Why? It's not what you got on, it's what you got inside. And a thankful heart makes you an attractive person. Now, how does all that begin? It begins this way, when you recognize that you've sinned against God and separated yourself from Him.
The truth is that you want a better life than you have. You know something needs to change when you're willing to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. Not based on the fact that you haven't been too bad, and not based on the fact that you're going to be better, but based on the fact of what He said, that He went to the cross and was crucified, shed His blood, and the Father accepted His shed blood as full payment for your sin and mine. Couldn't have been anybody else but the perfect Son of God that could have paid that price, because He was sinless. When you're willing to accept His death on the cross as payment for your sin, and tell Him that you're receiving Him as your personal Savior, surrendering your life to Him in that moment, He accepts you as one of His children.
Then what happens? Your heart's going to erupt with thanksgiving for all that you're discovering that He can be in your life. And that's our prayer for you. That you would know Jesus Christ as your Savior, and if you're willing to ask Him to forgive you, and it's just that simple, ask Him to forgive you of your sins based on the truth of what God says, based on His death at Calvary, all of a sudden, you're going to have something to really be thankful for. You're going to join all the rest of us who are grateful beyond measure that we're the children of God, and we want you to join His awesome family.
And if you're willing to ask Him, you can. And Father, how grateful we are that you're not prejudiced. A person can't be so bad that you won't forgive them.
Can't be so wayward that you won't bring them to yourself. And so, I pray the Holy Spirit will speak to the heart of every person who hears this message and recognize that emptiness. It's not a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving, loneliness, frustration, fears, anxiety, guilt, but most of all, that big hollow emptiness inside, covered with so many things that the world thinks is satisfying, but every individual knows it's not really there. I pray the Holy Spirit will bring about salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, the gift of eternal life to every person who hears, in Jesus's name, amen. Thank you for listening to part two of A Thankful Heart. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
