If you’re like me, you want to be thankful in every season of your life, but you find that it’s easier to WANT to be thankful, than it is to actually BE thankful.
There are some moments during the week, that you actually do feel thankful.
You give God a little wink and continue going about your day.
Those small moments of thankfulness, don’t really carry you through the inconveniences that seem to overshadow the little blessings.
It’s simple to be thankful in a season of abundant blessings!
When your prayers were answered and life is good.
You could stay in a grateful mindset for a couple days when life is going as you hoped.
However, the minute that life starts to stray from the way that you wanted it to look, then frustration builds and gratitude gets pushed to the back of your mind.
That is how it is for a lot of us.
It’s not that we are ungrateful…
We just let gratitude be pushed to the back of our minds, in order to address the frustrations that have come up.
Frustrations feel more urgent, while gratitude is the opposite.
We tend to give more attention to our frustrations because they are making more noise.
Thankfulness is quiet and peaceful; it does not require our attention as much.
Gratitude doesn’t upset us nor does it always excite us.
Gratefulness comes softly, like comfort.
You can have an outburst of gratitude, but that usually doesn’t last very long.
The thankfulness that you want is more consistent!
You want to go through life thankful, even when life gets difficult!
Yet, it seems like your mind won’t allow you to focus on gratitude!
It seems like a natural inclination to notice how bad things are, instead of, how great things are.
We are going to talk about it!
Why is it so hard to be thankful,
and how can I stay thankful, even when times get tough?
We will be looking at the life of king David!
Go to I Chronicles 28:2-6 NKJV.
We enter into the part of his story when God tells him that he will not be the one who gets to build the temple; that David’s son Solomon will be the one who builds it.
to us, this wouldn’t be a big deal!
In fact, it would mean less work on David, right?
Well, let’s just say that David wouldn’t have seen this as a blessing.
David already went through the work of preparing to build this temple.
Building the temple was not a chore for David, it was something that he really wanted to do!
He said “I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark…”
So, this was something David desired to do,
he dreamed of it,
he planned for it,
he gave his time and attention to this goal!
However, God said that due to the blood that he shed in his lifetime, he was not able to have his dream.
Because David was a man of war, he was disqualified.
If I was David, I would be mad!
David was only a man of war because God led him to kill Goliath!
After the success in the battle with Goliath, he was seen as someone who can defend Israel.
God helped him succeed in battle!
So, the thing that God called him to, was the very thing that disqualified him from achieving what he really wanted.
It just seems a little unfair, to me!
I did the right thing!
I did what God called me to do…
Yet, because I did, I don’t get to do what I really want to do.
You can probably see that I struggle with being thankful in tough times.
David is not like me, though.
He doesn’t focus on the disappointment…
He focuses on what he is thankful for!
“However the Lord God of Israel chose me above all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever…”
He quickly shifts his attention from the negative report, to the praise report!
He doesn’t let the disappointment make him forget about the blessings that God has graciously given.
God may have given the opportunity to build the temple to David’s son, but God chose David to be the king of Israel; and forevermore, only David’s descendants would rule.
That seems like a monumental blessing to me!
I struggle to hold my attention on the blessings that God has given me, when difficulty hits my life…
Though, I know I am monumentally blessed!
I have a habit of
Focusing on the frustration
In front of me.
David could have focused on his frustration, but he chose to shift his focus quickly, before he let the disappointment create bitterness in his heart.
All it takes is a shift of focus!
However, shifting your focus is hard when the frustrations seem to block any view of blessings.
This was actually one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2022, because I know that I have this deadly habit of focusing on the frustrating part of each moment.
Do you struggle with this, too?
This prevents us from being thankful, because the beautiful things seemingly fade into the background, while the frustration sits front and center.
Why?
Frustrations get more of your attention because they beg for your attention!
Here is a question for you!
If you were sitting on a beautiful beach and this was your view…
Then, suddenly a man to the right of you, began using profanity and obnoxiously starts yelling at the people who accompanied him to the beach.
You turn your head to the man yelling.
You try to ignore him, but his voice is distracting.
Everything else on that beach is perfect and peaceful, except that one man.
That is precisely why you focus on him.
If the beach was lively and full of people talking, children laughing and dogs barking, you would never notice the man yelling.
You have a better chance of tuning out the yelling, if everyone else is making noise too.
That beautiful view of the beach is blocked by people, yet you have a better chance of relaxing, than if you could hear the hollering of that one man.
How is internal contentment more achievable when circumstances are most chaotic?
Because, when frustrations are many, you focus on the small thing that is different… the peaceful beach.
Likewise, when all you see is peaceful beach, you focus on the small thing that is different… the frustration.
I’m going to tell you something that you won’t want to hear… something I don’t even want to hear!
The fact that your attention is pulled towards the frustration, is because everything in your life is beautiful!
I know, you have a long list of things that are frustrating, as do I; but, the reason that they draw your attention, is because they look nothing like the background!
Here is another image to help you…
What do you see?
You would probably say…
A black dot.
Why didn’t you say a white backdrop?
Because everything was white!
The part that we notice is the small portion that is not like the rest.
The black dot craves our attention, because it is nothing like the abundant white background.
Though there is so much more of background than there is of that dot, we still disregard the background because of that one small inconsistency.
This is why it is so hard to be thankful!
Because it’s hard to see the
Blessings in the background
when one small inconsistency draws your attention.
I believe that we give the devil too much credit.
We think that he is creating massive storms in our lives, when in reality, he is just drawing our attention to a small frustration, in the midst of immense blessing.
Even something very small, becomes very large when your attention is fixed on it.
That’s what the enemy did with Eve, in the garden.
He didn’t have the power to curse Adam and Eve…
All he did was make Eve focus on the one thing that she didn’t have, instead of on all of the things God gave her freely!
The enemy doesn’t have the power that we think he does.
We actually hold WAY more power!
We get to determine what we focus on.
If we don’t let our attention be directed by the devil, he loses all power.
We struggle to remain thankful because our attention is drawn to the small inconsistencies, instead of the background full of blessings.
This is not a personality trait…
This is warfare!
We don’t have to let our focus drift to whatever craves attention.
We can decide to shift our focus to what we have predetermined to be profitable.
This is so difficult, I know!
But anything worth it, is difficult at first.
Thankfulness is a discipline, before it becomes your natural response!
Just as exercise is a discipline, before it becomes just a part of your lifestyle.
It feels unnatural at first, but after pushing through the discomfort, you reap the benefits.
This is precisely what David practiced!
He exercised a thankful life, even when frustrations came!
He shifted his focus to see the blessings in the background, instead of the disappointment that was in front of him.
David remained thankful even when life got tough!
Here is 3 things that David did in this story, to stay thankful even in the middle of disappointment!
He encouraged the one who received the thing that he wanted.
I Chronicles 28:19-20 NKJV.
He could have paid attention to the disappointment of not getting what he wanted, and that could have even made him bitter towards his son; because his son got the very thing that he desired for himself.
David chose to see this as a blessing; that his son was chosen for this honor!
He decided to encourage Solomon instead of harboring anger towards him.
For us, this can look like, helping and encouraging an expecting mother, even if you have been praying for a baby in a season of infertility.
Perhaps this could even look like, being ready to be the answer to your new manager’s problems, even though you had just been rejected for that position.
It isn’t easy, but it is a choice that could change your whole mindset!
2. He still contributed what he had prepared, towards the dream, even if he wouldn’t get to experience it.
I Chronicles 29:1-5 NKJV.
David prepared for this dream of building the temple.
He saved the best of all that he ever had, for this dream, and he was still willing to give it to his son to use for the temple.
He didn’t put his desire to build this temple, before the actual goal of building a house for the Lord!
David knew that the most important thing was that the temple was built…
So, even if he wouldn’t get to build it, he still wanted the temple to be built as grand as possible!
He gave what he had prepared, because building the temple was never about him getting what he wanted…
It was always about bringing glory to God!
A practical way we can apply this in our lives could be, giving the money that we saved for a new car, to a family who is desperately in need of a car.
3. He remembered the faithfulness of God and prayed for God’s purpose!
I Chronicles 29:10-19 NKJV.
David reminded himself of the faithfulness and the goodness of God.
He redirected his attention on truth, not in his personal feelings!
He took historical accounts of God’s faithfulness and chose to trust God, even during a disappointment.
He remembered who God is and that God doesn’t change.
This helped him stay firmly planted in thankfulness towards God, even while the storms of life were beating against the walls of his mind.
David actually had joy in a moment that he didn’t get what he desired.
He was just grateful that the house of God would be built!
He took his focus away from what he was missing out on and decided to pay attention to the actual goal!
He even prayed over Solomon and the people of God!
He said:
“keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and fix their heart toward You.”
He even knew the importance of keeping the truth of God in the thoughts of the people!
David knew that there was strength in fixing their attention on God, rather than the problems that they face!
He prayed that the people of Israel would practice shifting their focus, as he had been practicing.
David did not just wake up one day, a thankful person.
He took steps to walk towards gratitude!
These same steps, we can decide to take today!
This same shift, we can experience in our lives!
We don’t have to focus on every frustration that comes to steal our joy…
We can practice these three things, and choose to fix our focus on the blessings in the background, instead of the small disruptions, that crave our attention.
When we shift our focus and discipline ourselves to see just how faithful God is to us, we can’t help but live thankful and joyful!
We will finally be able to live thankful, in every season of life!
Do you want to learn more about what craves our attention and how to lead our focus in the direction that will profit?
Check out the post
What is Attraction Really?
Photo by Nicole Michalou from Pexels
Beach Photo by Sezgin Kipel from Pexels
Black Dot on White Background Photo created by Hungry Still? Productions. Any unauthorized use of digital property owned by Hungry Still? Productions, is prohibited.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
