“I think I’m going to be happier this year.”
The conversation stopped and everyone looked at my friend. “Their jaws dropped,” she said of her husband’s family. Since “no one keeps their New Year’s resolutions anyway,” they had decided to make New Year predictions instead. Discussing politics, the economy, and the general state of the world, their forecast so far had not been bright.
“Then I said I thought I was going to be happier. They didn’t know what to say after that.”
How to be happy in a world choked with worry, fear, hatred, confusion, loss, selfishness, pain? How to decide ahead of time that this year will bring joy?
“I’m going to be thankful.”
There it is again, that word. Thankfulness seems too simple to be so powerful. Then again, there is a great difference between saying words of thanks and possessing a thankful heart.
A thankful heart, I am learning, does not have room for fear and worry. A thankful heart receives what is given without asking for more. Rather than wondering what tomorrow will bring, it is filled with wonder for today.
The more I thank Him for the wonders in my life each day, the more I find myself trusting Him. “His mercies are new every morning.” I find (wondrously) that I believe that. When the chaos of the day begins to settle and I finally stop and still, I am amazed to feel the warm comfort of peace within. I give thanks. The peace takes hold, spreads, smoothing out the wrinkles of stress and worry.
This is why my friend can predict a year of happiness. A thankful heart puts God in the spotlight, and God does not fail. Thanking Him for this moment, this present joy, this current place of provision, takes away the stranglehold of tomorrow’s uncertainty. And moment by moment, that faithfulness sustains me. Giving thanks roots me to now, to the God who holds me in His hand this moment. As I see that moment after moment He is still there, I learn to trust.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Col. 1:6-7).
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