The devil wants you to be ungrateful, discontent, dissatisfied, and unthankful. He does not want you to count your blessings. He wants you to be unhappy with the people in your life. He wants you to dislike the job God provided. He wants you to be jealous and envious of others because of what they have or who they have. The devil wants you to dislike your life with the hopes you will dislike the God who gave you life.
The more ungrateful you are the more anxious you are going to feel about what you don’t have and what you wish you could have. Anxiety wants to control. Its wants to control people, situations, how things are done, and when they are done. Anxiety wants to control information whether giving information or receiving information. Anxiety wants control. Managing anxiety God’s way is learning how to be thankful within the things you cannot control and within the things you could control but shouldn’t.
Today, we are thinking about being grateful and thankful and how that protects you from being overly anxious.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:5-9, NASB)
God gives you seven practices that help you defend yourself against your anxieties.
- Practice #1 is the practice of joy. God’s Word says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice!” This is learning how to apply the attitude and power of spiritual joy based on your relationship with Jesus in unhappy situations. This is where knowing the difference between joy and happiness is crucial.
- Practice #2 is the practice of gentleness. God’s Word says, “Let your gentle spirit be known to all people.” This is learning how to express gentleness in stressful and anxious moments of life. The Holy Spirit has given you a gentle spirit and He wants that gentle spirit to dominate your life regardless of who you encounter. This will help you to remain calm when facing difficult situations.
- Practice #3 is the practice of awareness. God’s Word says, “The Lord is near.” When you are aware of how big and awesome your Lord is it makes what you are anxious about not so overwhelming. This is developing the skill of being aware of the Lord’s presence, His return, and His glory.
- Practice #4 is the practice of calmness. God’s Word says, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Another way to say that is, “Be calm.” When you are calm, you are composed. When you are composed, you are able to focus and be present to do what God wants you to do and to bless people the way God wants you to bless them. You are able to hear God more clearly and to respond to Him more faithfully.
- Practice #5 is the practice of prayer. God’s Word says in verse 6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (NASB). We have already looked at the need for prayer and we saw that we need prayer “in everything.” Then we looked at the different types of prayer. The phrase “by prayer” is a general term for prayer and refers to all kinds and types of prayers in the Bible. We examined five key prayers for dealing with anxiety.
- Adoration: “God, you are wonderful!”
- Lament: “God, I am hurting!”
- Deliverance: “God, I feel trapped!”
- Confession: “God, I have sinned!”
- Guidance: “God, I need direction!”
- Supplication: “God, I need your help!”
Gratitude: “God, I am thankful”
When you are praying about what you are anxious about God says, “Come talk to me about it. Bring it to me and ask for Me for help.” That’s what He wants you to do, but this is NOT coming to God and asking for help in a demanding way. It’s asking for help in a thankful way. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (NASB).
I have personally been in Philippians 4:4-9 for a while. I am working on a personal project that involves this passage of Scripture. Back in January, I was studying verse 6. The day I was researching this idea of praying with thanksgiving in the face of anxiety I received a phone call from my wife Pam. She had already been through two bone marrow transplants in her fight against leukemia. She was currently receiving follow up treatments in St. Louis and staying at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge. They had run several tests and one of the tests indicated the leukemia was returning aggressively and they were going to make some adjustments. We talked about how we felt about this news, prayed together, and regrouped mentally and emotionally to face whatever laid ahead. Little did I know that Pam would be in heaven two months later. God knew that I needed to be thinking about praying with thanksgiving when that call came. God’s timing is always perfect. In my heart I was thankful for how Pam was handling everything she had gone through, thankful for family and friends who had helped us in so many ways, thankful that I was healthy enough to take care of the girls, take care of Pam when she was home, thankful for the finances to help with the cost surrounding Pam’s treatments, and thankful for a lot of other things. What I’m telling you today, worked for me and it will work for you. God’s Word was right, thanksgiving is a weapon against anxiety. It protects your heart and mind.
Why would God want you and me to be thankful when facing anxieties, fears and worries?
- When you are thankful it will guard your heart against bitterness when God doesn’t answer your prayer the way you wanted or remove the problem that is the cause of your anxiety.
- Thankfulness allows you to walk into the middle of the stress knowing God has a plan and purpose behind it all.
- Thankfulness keeps you from becoming bitter and having a victim mentality.
- It keeps you focused on the blessing rather than the burdens.
- It keeps you focused on hope, rather than your hurt.
- One of the most spiritual things you can do is to be thankful to God. Thankfulness does not remove the burden, but it does help you to carry it.
Let’s take a look at the power of thankfulness and what God’s Word says about it[i]. What I want to do for the remainder of our time is to give you a good taste of God’s Word on thankfulness so you can get a glimpse of it’s power and value in your life.
Colossians 2:6-7 says, “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord (that means you accepted Christ as your Lord. You are born again. You are a believer. You are saved. You are on your way to heaven), you must continue to follow him.7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him (all that is about discipleship and spiritual growth. You are growing and learning how to follow Jesus. You are learning how to say “yes” to God more often and “no” to sin and selfishness more often. Because your spiritual roots are growing deeper in Christ you are becoming more and more immovable by the winds and storms of the world. You are learning how to build your life, your marriage, your finances, your emotions, your mind, and your values on Jesus). Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught (your trust in God and His Word is becoming stronger. You believe what God’s Word says. Your life is driven by God’s truth rather than your feelings or the culture. What is the result of all this?), and you will overflow with thankfulness” (NLT). One of the ways you identify a mature follower of Jesus is by how thankful they are. If you find a believer who is not genuinely thankful and grateful to God for the blessings they have in life then you have found an immature believer regardless of how much Bible they know, how much they go to church, or how much they give. Here is where you need to ask yourself, “Do I overflow with thankfulness?” A person who is growing in thankfulness to God is a person who is growing spiritually.
Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (NLT). When you get up in the morning and go to work, go to work as a representative of the Lord Jesus in how you work and what you say at work. Be a thankful employee or boss. When you go to school, be a student who represents the Lord Jesus in how you study and how you talk. Be a thankful student. When you are at home, represent Jesus to your spouse in what you do and what you say. Treat them how Jesus would treat them. Speak to them how Jesus would speak to them. Be a thankful spouse. When you are at home, represent Jesus as a thankful parent. Set the example in your behavior and words. Be a thankful parent. When you are at home, represent Jesus as a thankful and grateful son or daughter. Whatever you do or say to your parent let it demonstrate that Jesus is the Lord of your life. If you are single, be the most thankful single person you know.
God’s Word says, “whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus….” As a follower of Jesus, you represent Jesus everywhere you go. God wants His people to represent Him as thankful people. God’s Word is saying, represent Jesus by giving thanks. God does not want to be represented by ungrateful, unthankful, dissatisfied, and discontented people. Being a thankful person is part of your witness and testimony of how great your God is.
Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” (NLT). One of the reasons why God wants you to devote your prayers with a thankful heart is because we naturally are not thankful people. It takes intentionality to be thankful when most people are ungrateful. It takes effort to be a thankful spouse, a thankful employee, a thankful son or daughter, and a thankful hospital patient. Instead of gripping about the things in your life, focus on being grateful for your life. Don’t be that person who is always complaining about the government, whining about their finances, criticizing their spouse, and finding fault with others at work. Rise above that and be a person with a thankful heart. “Devote yourself to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” Another way to say this is to dedicate yourself to focusing on your blessing in life.
Romans 1:21 says, “They knew God, (that does not mean they are born again, does not mean they are believers, followers of Jesus, or Christians. They knew that God existed, that God created everything. They believed in the existence of a God) but they wouldn’t worship him as God (they believed there was a God, but for one reason or another they wouldn’t worship him or honor him. Instead of worshipping him, they ignored Him. But then God’s Word adds this…) or even give him thanks. (One of the indications that you are not a worshiper of God is that you don’t give him thanks. You may be a thankful person generically, but you don’t thank God for your blessings. You may say, “I’m thankful for my family, my house, my health, or my job.” But who are you thankful too? Do the words, “I am so thankful to my God for all the blessings that I have. He has blessed me more than I deserve.” Another thought, I think when a person stops worshipping God privately and stops worshipping God publicly with a local body of believers, they eventually will become ungrateful and unthankful. Worshipping God and being thankful to God go together, you cannot separate them). And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. Once you stop worshipping God and being thankful to God you will change your God to fit what you want Him to be rather accepting Him for who He is. You start thinking up “foolish ideas” about God. As a result, their minds became dark and confused (Romans 1:21, NLT). They didn’t think clearly anymore, their mind turned to worthless things, as a result their life had no real direction or purpose. They were in the dark and confused. Their reasoning behind their beliefs and values and the way they live and see life made no sense. When a person is not worshipping God or thankful to God, it leads them away from God.
Ephesians 5:4 says, “Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God” (NLT). There are three things that God says “are not for you.”
- Obscene stories (aischrotes) – This refers to dirty language or stories that would be considered degrading or disgraceful.
- Foolish talk (morologia) – This is taking something that is shameful, and you make it appear acceptable by the humor that you put into it. It some way it removes God from the equation or belittles God’s Word on the subject. Foolish talk tries to make irrelevant on the subject.
- Coarse jokes (eutrapelia) – This refers to taking an innocent statement or word and turning it into something dirty or vulgar or inappropriate.
God says, “these are not for you.” As a follower of Jesus, they do not fit who you are anymore. They are like clothes that are too big or too small for you. You don’t look right wearing them.
“Instead,” as a follower of Jesus, “let there be thankfulness to God” that comes from your heart and out of your mouth. Thankfulness (eucharistia) means to be thankful for someone or something by recognizing their worth or significance. Thankfulness helps you to see God’s divine activity in a person or situation that you cannot see in any other way.
Conclusion
God does not want you to go through life uptight, upset, or easily offended. He does not want you to be easily angered, annoyed, and irritated by things that don’t matter. God wants you to experience His peace that no one can completely understand and goes beyond our imagination. The kind of peace that drives, governs, and controls how you think and how you feel. One of the ways to protect your heart and mind against anxieties is to pray saying, “God, I have a need” and “God, I am thankful to You.” The devil does not want you to talk to God about your needs and the devil does not want you to be thankful. He knows the power of praying and learning how to use prayer as a weapon and shield against anxieties, fears, worries, and anger. God wants you to be aware, calm, and present. The devil wants you to be confuse, nervous, and distracted.
[i] Thanksgiving (eucharista) refers to the expression of gratitude and appreciation for favor and mercy shown.
