Thankful Hearts, Peaceful Minds

Living with a thankful heart, no matter what is taking place in our lives at the moment, is vitally important to overcoming worry and anxiety. Remember that Philippians 4:6 tells us to pray with thanksgiving in order to obtain the peace that passes understanding. Maintaining a grateful heart brings us into God’s presence and helps us to suddenly see our life and even our problems with a different perspective.

When we notice what we have to be thankful for, we stop noticing what we lack. Whatever we focus on becomes the biggest thing in our life. If we focus on it long enough, it may even become the only situation we see. We are all blessed, and people who think they aren’t blessed are not seeing clearly. They may have focused for so long on what is wrong in their life that they have lost their capacity to see the blessings they do have!

Most of us have heard the saying, “Count your blessings!” And I think it’s a good idea to do just that. Try counting yours, and you will probably grow weary of counting before you run out of blessings. Remember, Philippians 4:6 tells us to pray about our needs and to be thankful instead of being anxious. Being thankful will distract us from our anxieties.

I realize that writing about being thankful when you have problems is much easier than doing it. As a matter of fact, I had an unexpected situation come up last evening that really upset me, so I had to apply this message to myself. It was difficult because my emotions were involved. As I write, it has been about 18 hours since the situation came up. I am about 80 percent of the way to victory and will need to keep pressing on until I get completely over this circumstance. Even after that, I am sure thoughts about what happened will revisit me, and I will have to renew my commitment to pray and be thankful instead of being anxious and worried.

My point is, be thankful for everything that comes into your life, because it all works together to make you the person God wants you to be. Regard your difficulties as joy, because you know they are working something good in you (see James 1:2).

Romans 8:37 teaches us that we are more than conquerors through Christ, who loves us. I think this means that we know we have victory before our trials even begin. We live with a winner’s attitude because God has already told us that we win in the end.

Adapted from the book The Answer to Anxiety by Joyce Meyer. Copyright 2023 by Joyce Meyer. Published by Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved.