I think we are a particularly ungrateful people.

Okay - I say this as a confession not an accusation since I am often at the head of the line.  I am keenly aware of God's many, many blessings in my life and I regularly show my gratitude in worship, in prayer by actually saying thank you to God and by giving financially to my church ... BUT, my ingratitude boils to the surface when I am facing a problem or a crisis.

Here is a current example: we still have a home in Virginia to sell ... a situation many of you can relate to in today's difficult housing market.  Despite all the ways God has blessed me over the span of my life ... the miraculous ways He has provided, healed, delivered, and blessed Rachel, the children and me ... despite the ways God has blessed us in the move to Jacksonville ... despite all of that, when I think and pray about the VA house I often begin with "stinkin' thinkin'."

I start from a place of fear, frustration, and doubt.  It is as if I am addressing this issue with no history ... with no past track record with God and how He has worked in my life, ... and, if I am not careful, I am guilty of the worst sort of ingratitude ... despairing, faithless doubt.

But, if I carefully rehearse and thank God for all the ways He has blessed and provided for me over the years, for how He has rewarded each step we have taken in obedience to His call in our lives, specifically thanking Him for the call to Jacksonville and this amazing church family, ... suddenly the way I think about, pray about the sale of that house is radically different!  The fear is replaced by a confidence in God's will and ways, the frustration is replaced with a perfect peace and the doubts give way to a confidence in the Lord and His plans to bless and not harm us.

Now I have to confess that knowing this intellectually and living it are two very different things.  I have to "take every thought captive" (2 Corinthians 10:5) and deliberately praise and thank God before letting myself think about or even talk to God about the issue I am struggling with.

Sooooo ... what are you wrestling with?  What issue consumes your thoughts and dreams?  What do you need from God?  I challenge you to make the careful choice to set that issue to the side and first begin by making a long list of all of things for which you are grateful to God.  Pull out a piece of paper and just start listing those blessings one after another .... turn it over, keep writing .... then, go get another piece of paper and continue until you run out ...

Then, take that list and get before the Lord and say, "thank you," specifically for each and every thing on your list.  Now, and only now, talk to God about the concern or need that you have and see if you don't pray in an entirely different way.

Perhaps this why the Psalm 100 says, Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.