How to Give Thanks Amidst Suffering: 4 Tips to Have Genuine Gratitude
Sister, I see you, and I want to tell you something I wish someone would've told me when I was younger…
Even in your deepest sorrow...continue praising the name of Jesus!
Life can and will have seasons of hardship, pain, and deep aching hurt. So how can you find gratitude when it's full of sorrow?
The Psalms have been an influential book of the Bible in my adult life because, within them, King David encourages us to continuously praise the Lord in good and bad times. In addition, David tells us that our hearts should be full of genuine gratitude no matter what we're experiencing in life, especially during seasons of deep suffering.
Over the years, people have told me that gratitude is ultimately a choice we make. They say, "If you think positively, you'll feel positive." Well, let me tell you that during my seasons of depression and anxiety, no amount of positive thinking or personal willpower gave me much relief. I tried so hard in my strength to be grateful. I tried every day to have gratitude but to no avail. I read all the books but one!
The Bible.
When the enemy comes against you, he'll use various strategies to disrupt your walk with God causing you to feel defeated. Remember, although the devil is a beaten foe, he's still active. Not only is he crafty and ruthless, he knows your weak spots. While he can't rob you of your salvation, he will seek ways to weaken your faith. He will cause confusion, doubt, and suffering if you give him a foothold. When he couldn't shake me physically, he went after me mentally. The great deceiver found my weak point, my confidence in God's purpose for my life. Did you know that the devil can't take away your God-given purpose? That's right! He can't touch it. However, if you're not paying close attention to your spiritual walk, he can sow seeds of doubt that can manipulate your thoughts, causing you to question God's path for your life. Your confidence in God is the devil's ultimate target for manipulation. If he can play havoc with your confidence, he'll try to turn your eyes away from the Lord and onto your suffering.
When you experience the enemy attacking your confidence, stand boldly, lift your eyes and your voice to the Lord, and sing, "Hallelujah, you are my Lord and Savior whom I trust!"
Here are four strategies I've used to have genuine gratitude during seasons of struggle:
1. Find gratitude in the mundane. You can tell me to write down my thoughts in a gratitude journal, place encouraging post-it notes on my mirror, and write down my life's mission statement seven times every morning. However, I've found that doing these things won't produce the kind of gratitude I need in seasons of sorrow. On the contrary, these things will only cause me to feel worse, especially when I'm in a deep, dark pit of life. Yet, from all this, I've discovered an important truth. Building a true and biblically rooted gratitude requires finding it in places often overlooked, particularly in the mundane things of life. Only when gratitude leads us to see God's goodness in all areas of life, especially in the ordinary, will we find what we need to pull us out of life's most sorrowful seasons.
Here's an example: When you wake up in the morning, say, "Lord, thank you, I'm awake. Lord, thank you for the blessing of having running water for my shower." Seems silly, right? When you start to appreciate "the little things" in life, you will begin to plant your roots deeper in the soil of faith so that your gratitude can flourish and grow.
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2. Put down your phone and open your Bible. Yup, I said it! Stop searching for the answer to your problems on social media or Pinterest. Instead, put your phone down and open up a physical Bible. There's nothing more important than running your fingers over God's life-giving words. I also recommend starting with the Psalms! That book is amazing, not to mention beneficial to your spiritual walk, for it provides us with simple yet emotionally deep prayers of gratitude to use during our seasons of sorrow.
3. Pray continually. When you can't find the words to pray, lean on the words of other believers, especially the words of Scripture, to help you. I love to play a Christian worship song or read a few chapters in the Psalms when I'm undergoing something difficult in life. We often forget that others have experienced the same things we're going through, even the people in the Bible. So we should draw encouragement from their experiences and use their words until they become our prayers.
4. Be open to others helping you. Godly advice from others can give us perspective and keep our minds on Christ. When we're struggling in life, we sometimes need a consoling word, while other times, we need a good swift kick in the rear end to realign our focus on God. I don't want you to worry about the correction, for we all need to hear it sometimes. The purpose of biblical correction isn’t to demean you or to say that you're a terrible Christian. Instead, the Lord uses the corrective advice given by others to help get us back on track because he loves us. He will place people in your path during seasons of suffering for just that purpose. So, be willing to listen to their advice. But don't just hear the words; receive them willingly and put them into practice. The devil would like nothing more than to have you refuse godly counsel and keep you in a state of darkness.
It isn't always easy to understand the purpose of life's sorrowful seasons. Trust me; I know. I've been there! I struggled through those seasons until I found the gratitude I needed in Christ to pull me out of those dark places. It takes time, discipline, and complete reliance on the Holy Spirit. It takes someone much greater than ourselves, our Savior, Christ, to help us. So, sis, be patient and rely on God's grace as you navigate this month. Given that November is a month of thanksgiving, start today by implementing these four strategies and trust that God is with you every step of the way.