The Power of Thankfulness

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now.

Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are very glad that you're with us this week. And Robby, how many Eves do we have until bootcamp? 178 is what I'm going with.

178, somewhere in the 170s. Yeah. And it sounds like a lot.

It really does sound like a lot. You go, I got plenty of time to register for bootcamp, right? I got plenty of time and it's bootcamp, not dude camp as we talked about a few weeks ago, it is bootcamp. And so, but let me ask you this, it's June already.

It's true. July 4th will be here before you know it, right? And then all of a sudden you got the fall coming and we're at Thanksgiving.

There you go. And it's the week before. It is the week before Thanksgiving and you're too late.

So you got to register now. So you don't forget and get all your Thanksgiving plans going. I'm just saying. Because when you get down to seven, yeah, you're there. It's bootcamp day. It is. It is.

So yeah, go register masculinejourney.org and register for bootcamp. It's going to be a fun time this time. It's going to be a lot. It was fun last time too. I didn't mean to imply it wasn't fun. There's been a couple.

They've all been fun because God's hand's been in the midst of it. So Danny, why don't you tell us a little bit about the topic today? It's your topic. So let's listen to what God laid on your heart. Crystal clear.

Yeah, I just want to say my topic. I wanted to say that really clearly. I have a pastor friend, pastor Wayne Eller used to say all the time, you can't kill a thankful heart. And that just has resonated with me in the last few weeks. And based upon Philippians 4, 6, thank you, Robby, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And, you know, there's a process in that and it don't want to give the implication to people that you should just always be happy, joyously Thanksgiving. But when things are going on, I call them those valley experiences, that if I can find myself trusting in the character and nature of God and know that he is good and that turns my heart into a Thanksgiving that maybe not of the circumstances, but it's of who he is and that he will get me through whatever it is we're going through. Yeah, there are some times though you wanted to say, God, can you just move your hand in a different direction?

I'm getting a little bit much here. You know, there's been times that I've actually said to God, God, I can't, I don't know if I can handle anymore. I need, I need some release here because sometimes life just keeps coming at you and pounding you and pounding you and pounding you.

And it's tough to keep that thankful heart. Well, what, yeah, what's the phrase that God won't put more on you than you can trust? And someday that wish he didn't trust me as much as he does evidently.

Yeah, he won't put any more on me than I can trust him. And I guess is hopefully the way it turns out. But I want to go ahead and get to our clip. Andy, do you want to set up this clip?

Yeah, so this isn't like a traditional movie, movie clip. This is basically it's about what I think of whenever I think of being thankful in the difficult times is the song from casting crowns, praise you in the storm. So this is Mark Hall. He's their lead singer. And he's kind of giving the the what the backstory on how they came up with the song and just gives a little testimony of kind of what he saw somebody else walk through.

And it really changed his attitude on how he handled the storms in life. And I'll praise you in this storm. And I will lift my hands.

You are who you are. No matter where I am. And every tear I've cried. We first set out on the road as crowns. We were starting to get emails, never got emails. I'm not used to anyone other than my church hearing the songs, you know. So we were just starting to hear from people. And we connected with a little girl named Erin, who had performed a dance at her school to one of our songs.

I mean, not a not a private school like public school. So that was pretty hardcore for a kid to do that. And we had the whole family come to the church, come to the concert and met the family. And right about the time we connected with Erin, that's when they discovered that the reason she wasn't getting well and she kind of stayed sick was it was cancer. And, and we really it was like God brought us together right then. And, and we just sort of walked through this with his family.

It was phone calls and emails and just talking back and forth and visits to concerts. And, and I think watching Miss Laurie, Erin's mom walk through this really showed me truth about my worship. He watching her walk through a real storm showed me that my worship was extremely situational. Man, if the sun shine and my hands are in the air, but it did not take much for my hands to come down. You know, because when you're reading your Bible and going to church, you're like, Lord, look at all I'm doing.

What is the deal? You know, and I'm still that way for some reason sometimes. But seeing her go through that, I'm not saying she had all the answers. I mean, she had all the emotions. She was happy. She would sometimes she'd be confused.

She'd be angry, you know, all that, that that's just walking around with skin on. That's just life. But at the base of it, you could see that Jesus piece, that steadying piece, you know, because Jesus said in this world, you will have trouble. And that's the part we always miss about the verse. No TV preacher ever gets to that part of the verse.

Right. But he said, you're going to have trouble, but take heart. I've overcome the world. And he said, he said, I'll give you peace. It's, it's a piece the world can't give. It's unexplainable piece. It doesn't make any sense because the situation doesn't say you should be okay. But I'm going to hold you in that. So Andy, what about that clip?

I mean, obviously there's a lot of meat there to kind of digest, but it's really, really a good clip. What spoke to your heart in the midst of that? Well, I think that's where I was a lot. I mean, I was telling the guys, I mean, I've, I've heard teaching that says we should praise God, you know, at all times and particularly in the bad thing, during the bad times and praise our way out of it. And I was kind of like Mark here.

I mean, I felt like there was a lot of cause and effect. If I do good, all of life should be good. But that's not what, you know, I think that's from John 1633 that he talks there about, you know, you'll have tribulation be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. You know, that the thing is, is we have to expect that there are going to be those bad times, but how am I going to handle it? And I think the thing is with me is, you know, it's an opportunity to get closer to him. Sometimes people can make that sound like that's just a cliche or whatever, but, you know, if it's all about a relationship, ultimately, and the bad things are going to come, what happens is, you know, you're going to be come, what should I praise him for? It's because he's there with me, you know, he's there, his presence is there to guide me through and help me through, not to solve everything necessarily. He gets there, those things happen over time, things, you know, get worked out, prayers are answered. But there's that presence that he's there with you in the storm that makes a difference. Yeah, and it's really tough when the things you've been praying for don't work out the way you think they should. Yeah, that's a lot of it, too.

We do have an agenda. Yeah, you pray for healing for somebody and they don't get healing, right? Or, you know, situations occur and still having Danny, as you said, a thankful heart in the midst of that is a challenge. But one of the things that Mark said in that interview, if you're ever around somebody that has just a situation that you couldn't even fathom being a part of, you know, dealing with chronic issues or things like that, and to see when they have joy in the midst of it really does give you perspective. It does. Right, because you look at it and go, man, if they can be happy in the midst of all this, why am I complaining? Right, exactly.

Why am I worrying about these things? Yeah, there was a church I used to go to, we used to do Tuesday night visitations. And y'all, first time I went, we went with a mentality of going to bless somebody, visit somebody that can't get out much. And we went to see this lady that was, she was born handicapped and she was just, but when we left there, you know, because we're going to encourage and all the good things that ministering people do, and they blessed us so much. Just the joy that they had with even knowing they had obstacles, I have no idea what they dealt with all the time because her dad said and told us about how they told her she won't live past 12 or something like that.

And he says, oh, no. And they prayed through this thing and just, but they just encouraged us so much. But that's that, that thankful heart, that, that thing that deep down, I know God's got this. If I can ever find that place, and I don't always get there, I'm kind of like, most everybody talked to, I'm going to get mad and frustrated and everything.

But that's the core of it is finding it deep down. So Andy, you said something before the show about David, right? David eventually got to thankfulness. Yeah, right. But he wasn't always there.

No, no. Whenever you look at the Psalms, there's plenty of Psalms where he's crying out to the Lord, like, Where the heck are you? I need you. Did you bring me here just to leave me? And, you know, I think that's the thing is, is whenever you go into this, whenever you really hit some hard times, I don't think God's expectation is we've all talked about authenticity here at all. I don't think his expectation is to go directly to praise.

Maybe it is. But a lot of times, I think he has to take you through the process and show you what's in your heart and, and how much, how dependent you are on him, and that he hasn't really left you. But there should be a time where you can come in and truly praise.

I mean, I'll talk about it probably on the, on the second show more, but you know, just the things that happened in my relationship, my family. And what I, where I first took that was it was not, you know, praising God, it was like really struggling with life. And where God are you? Because, you know, even though I'm not perfect, I feel like I've done things, you know, tried to do them right.

And they've just blown up on me. But when I went, as I go further along, as I live life, you know, further, and I can look back and see what actually happened, I can really praise him for it. Because he takes brought me from a to a place that I would never have known if life would have just stayed as it was. Yeah, Jim, you know, you've done a lot of counseling with people. It's important that the people walk through the stages they need to walk through, you know, almost if you jump right to praise, sometimes, you know, and you haven't processed grief, you haven't processed all those other things. Is it really genuine at that point?

It is a favorite Christian pose. Oh, yes, I'm joyful in the midst of this misery. And I did want to correct one thing. So I'm pretty sure David said, we're the shield, are you? But the one of the things that really gets me in counseling is how often people will say what they think I want to hear. And that that's a problem with all of us in this boat together. But if we can come openly with, you know, this is what I'm struggling with. And I know God's got it, then you can get there.

Yeah, I'd like to pick up with some more of that as we come back. In the meantime, go to masculine journey.org. Register for the boot camp that's only 170 some Eves away.

So totally about 170 days away. Five months go register now we love love to see you there. What if one weekend wasn't up to you that you could go and God would orchestrate it all masculine journey boot camp basic training designed to give men permission to be how God made them passionate warriors for the kingdom based on John Eldridge's wild at heart experience four days purpose for God to come after and perhaps reawaken dreams and desires he uniquely placed in your masculine heart fall boot camp coming up November 18, through the 21st go to masculine journey.org and register today. Hi, this is Sam with masculine journey.

I'm here with my son Eli. We're gonna talk about ways that you can help support the ministry. One way you can go to smile.amazon.com. Go to smile.amazon.com. There's information on our website there on how to do that. You go to facebook.com and click the donate button or you can go to masculine journey.org and find the donate button masculine journey.org. Or if you want to mail something in mail it to P.O.

Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. So, Danny, that was your bump for the show. Tell me a little bit about that. Okay, since I didn't have a clip. Yeah, I was moving past that.

Wasn't sure. We play that song at church. It's done by Bethel Music, that version of it is. Ultimately, when I look back over what we've been talking about, I can take any incident in my life and look back and see his faithfulness and his goodness and that creates something that begins a thankful heart. My buddy Jim Vitti always said that I look at what he's done in the past and know that he's been faithful and he's come through and that's what gets me through the next thing and that's kind of what that song is about. No, that's really good and I do want to go back to Jim for a second on this, but I don't want this to feel like pressure. We're talking about this thankful heart, but what if I don't feel thankful right now?

Yeah. You know, someone I love passed away, you know, financially I'm in ruins, whatever the case may be, right, my health isn't great, whatever those things are, I'm not real thankful about that right now, you know, and I can know God's got a hold of it, but you still have to go through the process, right, Jim? You do, and the first part of that process really is admitting it's a problem and often we don't, especially to God, even though he knows it better than we do, but if you see a place where you're hurt, you're angry, and you can't get over it, take that to God first and he'll get you to the place where you'll be thankful, but that's a gift. Well, everything is a gift from God, but to be able to be able to get to that place is a gift God has for you if you're willing to go through all the stuff to get there.

So yeah, next up we have Pollyanna, but before we get to Pollyanna. No, I was, I was wondering you just say what you want to say. Yeah, you know, for whatever reason in this particular season I'm in, you know, God has put it on my heart to memorize the 16th Psalm, and then Danny came with his topic about being thankful, and I'd really, really been studying the fact that in the 16th Psalm David says, because we were talking about David, he said, because I'm at his right hand, or excuse me, because the Lord's at my right hand, I will not be shaken. And interestingly, the word right hand and Jesus are almost synonymous. If you were to look at the way it's spelled, it's like, oh, well, Jesus is your right hand and you're in, you are at the right hand of Jesus, but you, Jesus is at your right hand. And then when I've started studying the thankful word is you find it in Philippians 4, 6 there, and you begin to go, well, where was Paul going with this?

Because clearly Paul was a Hebrew and where he was going was with the concept, which fits perfectly with the bump song of hot tub, which is a Hebrew concept. It's not in the Bible, but it means God's good. Like God is good all the time, all the time, God is good. But where that comes from is the word for thankful in Hebrew is Yada, which means the hand of God expressed.

And so interestingly, when you look at the actual definitions of the word, thankful, it's the same word as confession. So you're confessing that God's hand was in this. Now, if you believe God is good and his hand was in it, and you know that obviously his hands and everything, then you can't help but get there from an intellectual standpoint, not necessarily an emotional standpoint, but you see that, that God is good. And like you just said, God's come through in the past.

And so what, how's he coming through in this? And so here we have Pollyanna, what, you know, one of my all-time favorite movies, or way to watch it at least five times, that this girl brings light into a community everywhere she goes because she plays the glad game. And what she's looking for is how to find God's goodness in the midst of what looks like bad. And so here she, he's talking, she's talking to Agnes Moorehead, which is, you know, the hypochondriac lady in town, who's always dying. And she's actually talking to, you know, the undertaker who's trying to sell her a coffin.

And it's pretty funny interchange, but listen to the actual story behind the glad game. And then I want to talk a minute about what's inside that for all of us. Now, stop frowning at me like that. What's the matter with you? Well, it's just that when a person shouldn't think about dying so much, I don't want you to die. Oh, bless you for that.

Seems everyone else can't wait. My father used to say, a person should think about living. Why don't you go outside and play? Hush up. I want to hear what she has to say. Yes, miss.

No, yes. It just reminded me about my father and the doll. You see, I always wanted a doll, but we never had enough money for things like that.

My father was a minister. But surely he could afford a little thing like a doll. Well, he couldn't.

We had to have the money for food. Oh, for heaven's sake. Shh. So anyway, my father wrote to the missionary people and asked them to please send a little secondhand doll. It was a funny mistake. When the missionary barrels came, instead of a doll, they sent a pair of crutches. Well, of course, I was rather disappointed, so my father made up the glad game. The what game? She's been pestering folks all over town with this sunshine and happiness thing.

Hearts and flowers, enough to make you sick. Hush up. I want to hear it. Certainly.

Anyway, about the crutches. My father said, don't let's be gloomy. Let's try and find something to be glad about. So we made a game of it, the glad game. The glad game. Shh. So anyway, we played the game, and after a while I forgot about the doll and being gloomy.

And you know what? I found a reason for being glad. But there's nothing happy about a pair of crutches.

Well, we were glad that we didn't have to use them. So when you look at the 16th Psalm, those verses specifically that I refer to, it says, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Next verse. Therefore, my heart is glad. And my glory, which, did you know what your glory can rejoice?

But it does. Your halo gets a shine on. Your glory rejoices. My glory rejoices.

And my flesh rests securely. You see? And with that, realizing that you're there at God's right hand, and God's at your right hand, because you set the Lord always before you, is what David is saying there, that you realize that this doll may be a pair of crutches. Well, Eleanor Porter used the crutches in the book Pollyanna in a magnificent way.

Don't miss it. That what Pollyanna wanted was a doll, but what she got was crutches. Well, the way the movie works, she gets a doll, but then when she goes to reach for the doll on the roof, she slips off the roof and ends up paralyzed and gets what she needs.

Crutches, right? And so the crutches came to the point that actually allowed her to walk, you know, and have life again to, at one point in time, actually enjoy the doll that she later gets. And so, you know, it all comes together, but the whole town learned, right, by watching Pollyanna, because she was the one who was doing it, right?

They saw her, you know, just like the lady with the cancer, just like, you know, the whole town watched the whole thing in action that was being lived out. And when you think about your own life, right, in those other times that you went through something, and I went through cancer, and I saw God come through and come through and come through so that I know that I have this testimony, that he s going to be there, and he, if I put him there, he s always at my right hand, and therefore, right, I ll be glad. So Rodney, you re a resident Pollyanna?

I m more the undertaker right there. I ll admit. Yeah, Rodney s put the microphone in front of you.

For some reason. Okay, okay. So Danny, we ve got a couple more minutes left in this particular segment. What s some stuff you want people to walk away with on this topic of thankfulness? Well, I think we ve touched a lot on how you don t really get to start there. There is a process in thankfulness and how God is good, but us mentally and physically and emotionally being there sometimes just isn t there. But if we can find a place, and I think that s what Jim was talking about, that process of, okay, there s a problem.

How do I navigate through this and lean on what I know and let God lead me there? Does that make sense? It does. I don t know where that came from. It does. Yeah, my voice is changing at 58 years old. But I think that sometimes, you know, you may have to ask God to show you the inventory of things where he had had his hand in things in the past.

Yeah. Because a lot of people walk around not really realizing that. One of the things that hit me in the Pollyanna story is how, for me at least, when I have an issue that bothers me, it s normally a paper cut. I mean, it is minor compared to the greater things. And often God will hit me with one, two, three, four, five little things, which gets me to the point of laughing and saying, Okay, this is not tragic.

There s not a problem here. I can trust God in it, and it gets me to where I need to be. And I think for some people it s a major one that gets you there.

But God s going to give you exactly what you need to bring you to the point of being thankful for what you have. Yeah, and I think sometimes it has to be that look back, you know, that when you re in the midst of it, you can t see what s going on. All you feel is the pain. You feel the uncertainty, the fear, whatever that might be. When you look back at it, you can say, Okay, now I have clarity.

Oh, God, you did have me, and thank you for what you did there. Yeah, I think John says, John Eldredge says, You have to live life forward but understand it backward. That s how you understand it is by looking back. But you can t be looking back and live life with any kind of victory if you re not moving forward.

That s a good point. Thank you for throwing that in there. Anytime.

Anytime. Yes, I think it would be a good exercise for a lot of us to do is to say, Okay, God, I need you to make me aware again. You may have known this, and the enemy s good at stealing it from you. Yeah. But make me aware again of the times that I didn t know where we were going, but you had a place in mind.

And it didn t work out the way I thought it would, but at the end of the day, my heart s in a better place because of it. Right? And let him open your eyes to that because you do need to have that perspective when you face the next challenge, as you talked about, Danny, of, you know, I can have faith in what he s doing today because I can look at what he did in the past. But if you don t have that historical look, it doesn t do you any good. So go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. It s coming up November 18th through 21st. That is the weekend before Thanksgiving. Easy to remember it that way. masculinejourney.org. We ll talk to you next week.