The How: The Simple Disciplines of Gratitude & Praise (Growing in Faith Series)

A couple of weeks ago, I started a series and this continues the thread.  This is the How of the Who, What, When, Where, Why of faith.  I like that is happens to fall in Thanksgiving Week.  It fits.  (In the first post, I covered the What, you can read that here.)

I'm a personal believer in the power of gratitude, especially as commanded in Scripture.*  But as I grow in faith, I've discovered something remarkable.  Gratitude is the root of the fruit of the Spirit we think of as Joy.  Have you ever met a sour-faced joyful person?  No way!  Grateful people are smiling.  They freely sing, dance, give, serve, study and all those other things we should do as Christians.  Freely being the keyword here.

In fact, the people you know who have the deepest well of joy have learned, through literal trial and much error, to be thankful in all situations.  Giving thanks and praising God has set them free from the weight of sin, from death.  They know these two simple practices have immense power, and are perhaps our greatest weaponry on the spiritual battlefield.**

It might seem a bit shallow to say gratitude and praise are the biggest guns in our arsenal.  We've been taught to go deep in study, prayer, service, giving.  We feel we must start an orphanage across the globe.  These are all very good things, and I wish we all did more of them.  But there is a fundamental problem - we often don't have the purest intentions when we do them.  They tend to be about us and what we do for God, rather than freely (again that word) giving without expectation of anything in return.

That issue hits home in a a book I'm writing called The Jesus Rule, based on Christ's answer to the question: what is the greatest commandment?  He answers pretty simply, quoting Deuteronomy 6 and tacking on Leviticus 19, to create the be-all-end-all commandment to please the Lord.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

Christ says that 3 times in 3 Gospels: Matthew 22:37-39, Mark 12:28-31 and Luke 10:25-28.  You know if God repeats something three times, we better listen.  Those red-letter words support my point: Jesus was never about what we do for God.  He was about experiencing God by letting He Who is love transform you and those around you.  I submit to you now: the shortest distance between God's love and experiencing it is gratitude and praise.

That's why I call them disciplines because they should be practiced daily, if not hourly.  That looks like saying "Thank You, Lord;" like saying grace before a meal, but not only then.  We should be saying grace over everything.  We should be declaring (out loud) Who God is and What He has done/is doing/will do.  Stormie Omartian, in The Prayer That Changes Everything, writes these wros on the very first page of the introduction,

If prayer is communicating with God, then the purest form of prayer is worship and praise.  That's because it focuses our minds and hearts entirely away from ourselves and onto Him.

If praise is our vertical beam of the Cross, then gratitude is our horizontal.  Gratitude is how we demonstrate His power and work in our lives.  They are two halves of the whole.  In them, we meet the Lord, coming to a greater, fuller understanding of Who He is.  Our love for Him will grow wildly as a result.

Trust me when I tell you this because I've been practicing it for awhile: When you truly praise God; when you are truly thankful for Him - you will find what you've been missing in your faith walk.  If you are struggling to get closer to God, to feel His Presence more, these two active truths are the keys to opening the door of your heart to Him.  Maybe you are struggling with sin, with a diagnosis, with money problems, with your kids (whatever).....it is time to bust out your big guns of thanksgiving and worship.

Jesus told the Samaritan Woman at the Well in John 4, there will come a day when the place we worship doesn't matter, but instead the position of our hearts.  We will worship in spirit AND in truth.

For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us. (v. 22-23, TLB)

The fastest way to have the kind of relationship the Father wants is to praise and thank His Son through His Spirit.  

Quote from Watchman Nee

This are very simple practices, truly.  No theology degrees required.  Yet, when we practice them, they will become our greatest witness to the world of the love and power of Christ: to save, heal, deliver, provide and set free.  They usher in the Kingdom of God right in our own hearts, right here at our desks or where we are on our phones.  Gratitude and Praise bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth: in your house, car, workplace, school, neighborhood, gym and especially in your church.

We have such a tendency to be what the Bible calls "double-minded."  We think about God on one half of our brain, but the other half is all about ourselves: what we are feeling; what we think is right; what others are doing/have done to us; what we will eat next; what we will wear next, etc.  The Lord wants us to be singularly focused on Him, which is why The Jesus Rule makes sense.  Jesus always started with God, so we must start there. 

A.W. Tozer called Psalm 103 "God's Pitch Pipe."***  If you know anything about music, a pitch pipe is used to get a choir in tune.  Psalm 103 is a great place to start, but you can just keep going through Psalm 109 (or just go through most of the Psalms, if not all).  Worship and Thanksgiving will not only build your faith, in them you will get eyes and ears to experience the Lord in real-time. There is no better easier week in America, no more acceptable time in our calendar year, to be grateful for the vast blessings we have.  

Take Thanksgiving Week one more step further.  Call it Thanks & Praise Week.  Be grateful and praise God for it.  Let Him get your spirit in tune with His.  Let this holiday season be different because it is marked by what really pleases the Lord: Not good works, not giving, not getting along with your relatives, but gratitude and praise of His name.

*For your study, here are some references to commands from Scripture to be grateful: Psalm 50:14; Psalm 100:4; Psalm 107:22; Psalm 116:17; Isaiah 51:3; Mark 8:6; Luke 22:17; Romans 1:21; 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Philippians 4:4,6,8-9; Revelation 7:12

**So you know, the enemy can't get to you when you are thankful and full of praise.  It expels him from the area because you are submitting to the Lord.  He has to flee.  So, if you are experience some spiritual warfare, break out your shofar (that's a reference to a horn the Hebrews often used going into battle and it's purpose is to praise God).  You've got one, right there in your throat.  Shout your praise to God - thank Him with all your might.  Then you will see the very atmosphere of the room change.  I know this for a fact too.

***Thank you to my precious, dearest friend and mentor, Janice Heffer Wright, for telling me A.W. Tozer's comment during a sermon she heard him preach (in person!) so long ago.  I have never forgotten it!

Contentment or Complacency?

I've been learning a lot recently about a stumbling block I keep tripping over, which I didn't know was there until a month ago.  I had a dream where I got pregnant, had a newborn and found myself pregnant again.  Right before I woke up, I remember crying out to the Lord,

"I can't handle 5 kids, Lord!  I can't do this!”

That was the beginning of the realization some band aids needs to be ripped off my life.

Weekend before last, my girls were complaining about a lot of really unimportant things.  They were not content with ALL that we have - and we have more than 99.999% of the world (I don’t think that’s an exaggeration).  So, we started a week long gratitude journal.  The plan was to write what we were grateful for 7 days in a row.  Day 1 was one thing; Day 2, two things; etc. on down the line.

We didn't make it through all 7 days, but we made it through 5. (I call that a win).  You see, slowly, painful, the Lord was pulling up the band aid.  Last Wednesday, I was in a prayer  

Rain Off the Coast of AL

meeting when one of our worship leaders started to pray for rain - favor, wonder and unreserved blessing. Now, I pray that for other people ALL THE TIME.

After we were done, though, I confessed to the group I was scared to ask for that.  Shouldn't I be happy with all He has given?  Was it even right for me to ask for more?

Needless to say, they called me out on my error.  In that moment of confession, I heard the rip of my skin as the band aid came off.

I have been just fine with where I am.  It has felt like A LOT already, but I've been able to handle it, to praise Him abundantly for it.  I feel like I'm being used enough by God, and have more than enough to share.

Yet, under this band aid was a festering wound - created by a lie I'd been believing.  lie.  The lie, the source of the infection (if I can be so graphic) is that I should be happy because to ask for more is selfish, greedy and unbecoming of a Christian woman.  The enemy would love for me to keep believing that because it keeps more out of my life. 

However, the enemy didn't cause the lie to sit there and fester.  I should have known it for what it was, but I was comfortable believing it.  He might have deadened me to the pain, but I gave him the good ground to plant the seed.

Why would I do that?  Why would I believe so obvious a lie?  I’ll tell you why: more is hard.

The kind of more we are talking about is more of God.  And more is just that: more.  It means more logistics, more work, more details.  But more also means just that - more; more ministry territory, more use of my gifts; more fruit of the Spirit; more blessings that comes from more of God made real in my life.

The Lord wants me (and all of us) to have more of Him.  Once the band aid was off, He could heal the wound.  And He did, after about 36 hours of consistent-on-my-face-repentance.  Lots of tears washed that wound clean when I realized I was not content, I was complacent.  Like the 2 tribes that didn’t want to cross over the Jordan, who stayed east of the Promised Land, I wasn't reveling in the goodness of God.  Actually, I was actively (even if unknowingly) holding off further goodness because I didn't think I could handle it.  I was fine with where I was.

To make a long story short: that just isn’t good enough for God.

Complacency was my band aid against facing the fear of not being able to handle all God has to give me.  That fear, that band aid, held me together.  I told myself:  "I'm good where I am, I don't need to ask God for more. Rain is messy, I'll just stay here, warm and dry, under my umbrella."

Contentment is, in essence, making the most of what the Lord has given you and being thankful for it.  That's what Paul is saying in Philippians 4:11-12,

I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

As I read these verses a few times, I begin to see a dynamic tension, essential to true, holy contentment.  Paul learned how to be content in all circumstances, yet, he doesn't want to stop there.  He is full, yet still hungry; low but lofty.  He is abundant but still in need.  I don’t think it is just my translation or imagination here.  True contentment is doing all you can with what you have from God and still (excitedly) expecting more. 

To put a finer point on it, another verse we've been praying through at church is Malachi 3:10, when the Lord Himself declares:

Try me now in this (if you bring all you have to me): See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will be not room enough to receive it.

The Lord does not just promise eternal life in Heaven.  He promises it right here, right now.  So much of it, we can't handle it, by ourselves.  That’s the real trick, ain’t it?

The whole point of the victorious life in Christ is in Paul's very next statement, from Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

It is only by resting in trust, in the favor of God, will anything worthwhile be accomplished - especially more of it.  Contentment knows to rest where complacency knows to fear what might come if we ask too much.  In complacency, we don't ask because we know we won't be able to handle what God gives if we do.  The Apostle James says as much in James 4.  A few verses later, he also says if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us; if we humble ourselves.  Then He will lift us up (James 4:2-3,8,10).

Complacency is about doing what we can with what we have, not expecting anything more because we couldn't handle it.  It is trusting (only) us.  Contentment is about doing what we can with what we have and being grateful for the more that is coming.  It is trusting (only) Christ.

Perhaps you, like me, have been so blessed by God, you can't think of what to ask Him for.  Why ask, when He has already given so much?

That's not piety, as I found out last week .  It's fear and mistrust.  It boils down to the sin of pride.  If I ask the Lord for more, if I surrender more of my heart, mind, emotions....life to Him, then I'm going to get it and I can’t cope.  So, I stay silent and remain safe, comforted by the little I've received.

Righteous Contentment is the balance of being grateful and wanting more – and trusting God to equip you for what He gives.  It is living in excited anticipation there is so much better coming.  Satisfied, but yet still longing for more of Christ, the hope of glory.

Of course that includes expecting and thanking Him for trials, heartbreak and suffering for His name that might come with His more, because you know you will receive that much more of Him to overcome it.

Now that the band aid is off and the healing is complete, I’m going to ask for more, without an umbrella, without a safety net.  Certainly, without worry it will get messy because God specializes in making beauty out of mess.  He's done it before for us and I've learned a mess from God is always much better than a mess I create myself.

Suffering a Spirit of Want

Let me ask you a personal question, just between us.

Are there parts of your life that feel withered?  Do they feel barren or even cursed?

I've been sitting with the situation in Mark 11:12-25 for a long time.  It's that weird passage where Jesus sees a fig tree in season with no fruit, so He curses it.  24 hours or so later, it's completely withered.  I've stayed in that passage because frankly, I didn't get it.  Sure, Jesus is God, it shows His power over creation.

But I knew there was more to it.  Just my little brain couldn't get wrapped around it.  In reading John 15 this morning, I believe I got some clarity.  It goes back to my question.  Do parts of your life feel like that cursed fig tree?

You could have been dealt a bad hand by life, caused the issues yourself or even, in your darkest moments, think God cursed you.  Nothing is growing, there is no fruit.  You've prayed, you've asked, you've bargained and you've begged.

Still, nothing but a dried up husk of a desire, a dream, a promise, a relationship; where you once thought fruit would bloom.  It's a scabbed wound you pick at occasionally, but you have not yet allowed the Lord to completely heal. It sits there and so do you, staring at it.

I've been there.  I've stared at the dried husk of my daughter's healing, many a lonely night in her hospital room.  Crying out to God, for His mercy to be made visible.  Not seeing it, I became angry, bitter and scared.  I thought God wasn't there.  I was under the oppression of a spirit of want.  I wanted something so bad, and it was a good great thing.  It was a spirit of:

• Where are you, God?
• How could you, God?
• Why won't you, God?
• When will you, God?

Hot on the heels of all of those thoughts is the insidious, paralyzing question: What is wrong with me, God?

All these questions and no answers and my spirit felt as dead as that fig tree.  I felt forsaken.  But who knows forsaken better than Jesus?  He cried out from the Cross, in His own words from Psalm 22:1-2: why Lord have you forsaken me?

The greatest hope we have, in moments of desperation and unrequited want is: those cries, even seemingly unanswered, do not go unheard.

Once those moments have passed, though, we can't keep staring at the dead tree.  If we do, we will miss Christ.  We will miss the hope and healing that comes from being heard.  We will miss the fact that we are not, actually, forsaken.  If we let the spirit of want linger too long, our roots will grow bitter, poisoned and decayed.

When we spend too much time looking at what we don't have, we miss all the living, blooming trees of life God has put around us.  We are bearing fruit, but won't know it if we keep our focus on the one part of our lives that isn't.

It is only when we drag our gaze off the want, even taking the proverbial axe to it, we see Jesus.

Do you know where Jesus was in the hospital room, which was (seemingly) devoid of healing?  He showed me last week, on Wednesday, during a new prayer meeting my church started.  He showed me He was right at my shoulder, just behind me.  He was close enough that if I turned around, I would have seen His reflection in the window.

I want to submit an idea to you.  Perhaps that want of yours, although not right for you now, maybe it isn't as dead as it looks.  Maybe the Lord is keeping it dormant for a time when you are ready for the fruit it will bear in your life.  Maybe it isn't dead, withered, barren - cursed.  The Lord is keeping it under wraps for now.

The revelation of Sophia's healing was exactly like that.  We waited 3 years for the confirmation of the promise He made.  It is still being revealed day by day.  So, perhaps the Holy Spirit, in His resurrection power, will revive that want, dream, desire, relationship.

Maybe.

My point remains this: Are you going to miss all the other deliciously blooming fruit trees in your life because you keep staring at the one that isn't? 

Don't miss the evergreen forest of God's love and work in your life for this one tree.  Who knows what He will bring about in the future, but that is for Him to decide.  Remain in Him, united in His grace, and every branch He determines will bear fruit at the right time.

Psalm 23 and Notes

I suffered from a spirit of want for 3 years and it formed a hole in my soul.  Even after I saw the revelation of the answer to my prayer, I kept that hole as part of my identity in Christ.  Yet, I'm not meant to have a hole.  I am meant to be whole.

I choose whole.  I feel so much better, lighter, knowing my God was with me in my want but He wants more for me than that.  I know He is greater than the want, infinitely more satisfying.  I know now it's better to choose to see the blessings already being poured out. 

 The Lord is my Shepherd....I shall not want.