Cultivating A Thankful Heart

Cultivating a Thankful Heart Psalm 95:1-11

Nothing is sweeter for a person to say or write on a little note than the two small words of thank you. It really only takes a little bit of time to pick up a phone or actually mail a handwritten note to express our gratitude.

Being thankful not only opens the heart to the person giving thanks, but it reassures those to whom we give our thanks that we are indeed humbled and grateful by their acts of service and how they have blessed us and help to fill our needs.

Lets always remember that people choose to be our friends. People choose to attend our churches. People choose to bless us and they choose to move and minister upon Gods behalf.

Id like to take those two little words....thank you, and help you in your walk with God to help you design a life that truly glorifies God. I'm going to take us down a road that I'm sure many of us have considered, but never truly put it into practice as earnestly as we should.

#1 Work…yep it matters

Let me start off by saying that burnout is in fact a real issue in the life of a believer, especially those who are in the ministry full time. You can’t do everything all of the time, but you can at least do something most of the time.

I've seen some of the most busiest pastors seemingly toil sunup to sundown tire out within a couple of years and work themselves right out of the ministry. How?

They have forgotten that they are supposed to work the fields and trust God to bless with a harvest that he sees fit. When we don't like the harvest, naturally we work harder and plow deeper and add more fertilizer, look for a new seed to sow. All of which the natural man loves to do.

Yet have we forgotten 2 Corinthians 5:17-Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are past away: behold all things are become new.

It's not just our walking and talking and standard of living and personal convictions that need to change, but our way of sowing and reaping that must conform to Christ's as well.

As I type this, the majority of the pipes are either frozen or broken under our house. This old salt shaker farm house was built in the 1890s so I kind of expected it with the cold winter season coming on. But, we have water at the well so we just gather it a couple times a day in a 16 gallon milk jug we use for milking. The cows, goats and chickens are still being fed and watered. In fact they get taken care of first thing in the morning and in the last thing in the evening. Proverbs 27:23-Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

Excellent thought from Solomon isn’t it. Simple, yet profound, as most Bible promises and commandments are. However, we as believers miss the mark when we go chasing after the latest and greatest methodology or new version of theology which promises a deeper understanding into Gods Word or church growth or spiritual fulfillment.

How hard is this verse to follow? Proverbs 20:4-The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing. It’s not hard to understand, but it is a brutal truth which so badly needs to be put forth in today’s society. You’ll always be hungry if you don’t want to work….or at least you should be but the welfare state we are moving towards is a whole different topic.

Whether it’s a financial hunger, a spiritual hunger, or an actual hunger for food…..if you don’t plow the fields, you can’t expect to get a harvest. And without a harvest, you’ll never be thankful for what it is your beginning to eat or partake in. It’s a vicious cycle that ends with believers leaving our churches, children leaving the home as soon as they turn 18, and even folks rioting in the streets because ….fill in the blank.

Have you ever noticed how every few months a new method or program seems to come out that promises us how to get wealthy. It seems that everybody has a new pill, potion or lotion or a book we can read that guarantees riches. Of course the writer of the book and maker of the product is the only person getting wealthy.

The reason most people never see true success is that it normally starts with a pair of work books and overalls and gets up with the rooster. The absolute beginning of thankfulness starts with a work ethic that rivals anything and everything your peers have ever seen.

Where we own our farm here in Southern Indiana is in the middle of a small but thriving Amish community. For a brief moment, let me take you here.

Each and every morning at 5 am I get up and grab my first cup of steaming black coffee, drop two ice cubes in it and let Max and Harley our two blue heelers outside for the day. Ill walk the fence line and pray for a bit to stretch my legs and get my body and spirit moving for the day. Then at once from the neighbor house at 5:15 am you can hear the faint ringing of a wound up alarm clock. Moments later, the coal oil lamps are lit and you begin to see lamps going through the yard to the animal houses.

If we look in any other direction, I promise you that you will see the exact same sight and hear the exact same sounds at every Amish house. Usually the men and boys are getting the cows and goats milked, and the women and girls are preparing breakfast and getting lunches made for the men if they work in town at a building site.

Trust me when I say that the work and busyness of the Amish doesn’t ever seem to end. I envy their work ethic actually, because if they don’t work, they don’t eat. They do not collect welfare, they do not have workmans compensation, and they all must pull their own weight as well as work together within their church community as well to live, thrive and survive.

Yes I understand that they work out their salvation as part of their religion. However if they can work as hard as they do without all of the modern amenities we have, shouldn't we as believers be able to something big and bold for the things of God?

Can’t we strive together and labor for the gospel tirelessly and in one accord? The church and family that works and prays together, will ultimately stay and grow together.

By the way, let me say just one last time, you can’t do everything all the time, but you can at least do something most of the time.

#2: Today’s bread and everything else as well

As an evangelist, I’m amazed at the goodness of God in His answers to not only my prayers, but the prayers of His people. In fact, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s often more exciting for me to see how God is going to answer my prayers, not necessarily the answer in and of itself.

I’ve personally seen in my few years in the ministry folks who have had their cancers healed, marriages put back together, wayward children come home and local churches experience a pouring out of the Spirit in a way that was both powerful and Biblical in nature.

We have had absolute strangers pay for our fuel at Gas stations and pay for meals that we never met or have seen. Our family has prayed for certain needs privately and have seen those needs met through people and through ways that I honestly could never understand or begin to comprehend.

Trust me when I say that I take absolutely no credit for these instances nor would I ever in any of the situations like those mentioned above. In fact I’ll be honest to say that I’ve spent countless hours and days praying for certain people and situations, only to find that the exact opposite of what I was praying for took place.

Regardless of the outcome, I’m able to say that God always answers prayer!!!!

However I’m worried for our movement as Fundamentalists. I’m not worried about the majority of us and our doctrinal stand. Nor am I overly worried about our musical preferences and our personal convictions and standards. Trust me when I say that I’m so thankful for those churches in America that are desiring to stick to the old paths and what many would call the old time religion.

I am however beginning to see a growing and harmful trend within Fundamentalism as well as what some would call American Christianity. Have you noticed lately that throughout Christendom there seems to be a lack of thankfulness, not only for what the Lord has given us and delivered us from, but in our overall life as well.

I remember as a boy, one Thanksgiving day when we had Ramen noodles and fried bologna sandwiches with mustard and eggs for our meal. It wasn't much and definitely didn't belong in a Norman Rockwell painting. However I was grateful just to be around my family then because a neighbor boy I grew up with was celebrating Thanksgiving day in a foster home due to the relentless abuse of his parents. Another one of my friends’ parents were recently divorced, and yet another friend had no idea where his mother was on that day.

As it so happened to have turned out, that was the last thanksgiving we had with my father. He died three months later after fighting a 15 year battle with Cancer....I was only ten.

We didn’t have much, but we had each other, running water and a roof over our heads.

Now I told that little story to remind you that the single most important key as a believer to living the spirit filled life is developing attitude of gratitude. We need to learn how to cultivate a thankful heart. You’ll never experience the fruit of the Spirit without being thankful for what you have and what you are today.

What if you only woke up today with the things you were thankful for yesterday?

We are commanded to pray to God the Father give us his day our daily bread Matthew 6:11.

We are to pray for our daily bread so we go to him each and every day, not expecting for it to be in the cupboard already, but in expectation knowing that God will and has already provided for us.

1 Thessalonians 5:18-In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my life as a Christian is not to compare myself to or with others. We all have the bumps, bruises, and scars. They just come in different shapes, sizes and flavors Many of us have spent years going through trials and tribulations which may or may not have been brought on because of our own actions. But they don’t reveal who you really are. How you respond to them does!!!

I’m also afraid that our lack of thankfulness as believers has created a handout mentality within the local church. We expect good things from God, yet haven’t fully used or been blessed by what He has already given us. How can or why would God desire to send revival and pour out His Spirit upon His people when we aren’t the least bit thankful that He gave us His Word, or a building to worship in and Godly pastors to lead us?

We literally have within our grasp all we will ever need to reach the world for Christ, but many of us aren't even willing to reach our neighbors or family members, yet take the gospel message to a foreign soil.

When it comes to the point in your life that you realize Jesus is all you really need, then beloved Jesus will be all you really need. We've become over commercialized within the local church, and our homes as well.

Our busyness hasn't equated into effectiveness because we've become busy about the wrong things. Prayer meetings need to be prayer meetings. Revivals need to be centered around the Word of God. Spirit filled preaching ought to edify Christ, not be a rant concerning our current political climate. We seriously need to get back to making the main thing making the main thing the main thing.

Take notice to see within the above portion of scripture that in everything, whether good or bad… wanted or unwanted deserves our thanks. I’m sure that many of us have heard that old saying about developing an attitude of gratitude. Well, I’ll be the first to tell you that it works.

Our family has lived a life of faith and absolute trust in God since entering the ministry. I'll give you one of the main reasons why I think God has so greatly blessed us.

Each morning I write down ten things I’m thankful for, and I review them quietly before bed each night. It sounds a bit corny at first, yet in everything whether it’s throwing my back out digging a sewer line or winning someone to Christ, both let me know I’m alive and for that I’m grateful!!!

I call this daily writing my gratitude journal and I've combined it with my prayer journal to use

each morning during my devotions. I'm entirely grateful and humbled by reviewing it every Sunday before I get the opportunity to preach. It reminds me of Gods goodness and His unending faithfulness to me as I trust solely in Him.

You have to treat each and every morning as a new opportunity to see God’s grace and mercy extended to those in need, and to those whom He calls His own. I’ve been in abject poverty with zero food in the house and crying children hungry with only cornmeal mush to eat. I have also been blessed enough to be able to raise my own food to where I’m no longer hungry.

The point I’m trying to make through the death of my father, living in poverty, and working as a farmer/ evangelist is this……I’m thankful for the trials and tribulations which wore me down and weakened me because I have learned that my real strength comes from the God I serve, not the situation I see. Ephesians 6:10 Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might

#3: I want more, but only if He wants it for me.

1 Timothy 6:6- Godliness with contentment is great gain.

A great way to prove your contentment for the things of God is that you become completely satisfied for what God has given you in His Son, yet you always strive to be more, do more, and give more for the glory of God and His kingdom, not our own.

Think-fullness will always produce thankfulness and it will keep you in rememberence of what you once were or could have been except not for the grace of God.

Phillipians 4:8- Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if their be any virtue, if their be any praise, think on these things.

Stop for a moment and look around you. Don’t you see how far you’ve come in your walk with God? Be ever mindful of how God can use you in your current situation and how He can use you in the future.

How can God use someone who isn’t thankful? How can God use a church that isn’t willing to testify?

Psalm 95:1-2 O come let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Have you honestly rejoiced lately about your salvation?

Believers who are blood washed, sanctified, justified, and reconciled and no longer condemned to the fiery depths of hell ought to be the most joyful people in the room and community.

One of the saddest testimonies of our movement as Fundamentalists is the stoic look on our faces as we sing the songs of Zion. Shouldn't we be known as Compassionate Christians instead of Fighting Fundamentalists? I'm all for contending for the faith, but how often do we fight amongst ourselves just for the sake of fighting?

If there isn’t any joy in your voice or on your face when you are in the church house or at the camp-meeting, why would anybody want to have the Christ you claim to have?

I honestly worry about folks who are afraid to sing and shout and praise God. Perhaps we forgot how to sing, or maybe we’ve become intimidated by the wickedness of the charismatic movement? Perhaps we lack joy and singing out our praises to God because we have nothing to sing about within our hearts.

Let’s read what David said in Psalm 40:3-And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

Did you notice that it does not mention folks hearing you in that verse, but it does mention them seeing you? I’ve been to a few churches that have been so dead that if a man had a heart attack and died they’d have to check the pulse on a half a dozen people before finding the dead guy. It ought not to ever be that way in our fundamental churches. Don’t let your shout die out.

It would do us well as believers to not only openly witness, but to also openly testify about the faithfulness of the God we serve. A simple 30 minute testimony time within the church can seriously revive the atmosphere of the local congregation. Don't be afraid to move away from the regimented services many in the congregation are used to.

Gods absolute desire is to use you in a mighty and powerful way because He is a mighty and powerful God. In the next posting, we'll consider the Sovereignty of God, His creative works, and His leadership in our lives!!!!

call me personally at 812-844-5802.