Thankfulness

Thankfulness,,, the subject that we all know too much about but sometimes we forget. So about two weeks ago I was driving my truck I saw a bumper sticker. On the bumper sticker it said, "thank you God for blessing me much more than I deserve." I thought the person knows where I'm at. I don't deserve this life and I say thank you to God for today. So then Sunday rolls around and it's time to write my senior sermon for June 23, 2013. I log onto my computer hit up Facebook and the first thing that I see on the wall is a picture with the saying "thank you God for blessing me much more than I deserve,,," so I guess that will be what today's sermon is about--being thankful and thankfulness. Every day we wake up and we're given the gift of life. What we do with it becomes a gray area. You see in the Bible it says "be joyful always, pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ." (Thessalonians 5:16-18) This is rough,,, well because life is rough. We all got problems... the world has many problems--maybe getting divorced and you can pray on that. Maybe your woman who miscarries,,, you can pray on that. Maybe you're someone who gets mistreated daily,,, you can pray on that. Maybe you're a person at a nursing home barely living and if not for the staff you'd be alone,,, you can pray on that. Maybe you're overwhelmed by your finances and have a cloud of depression over you or you're just lonely--all things you can pray for or pray because, but do these things make you feel thankful ??? In most situations, giving thanks for these things would suck, suck hard !!! You wouldn't feel a need for calling... NO just the opposite ,,, shaking your fist with anger upward at the Lord would seem more fitting, making what Paul said fruitless, but you're breathing, you're alive, you're heart and blood is pumping. You see, giving thanks in good times it is easy to get reminded that every gift is good and perfect from above. We can easily appreciate them. Counting our blessings becomes habit and comfort, but in difficult times these come gray. You see, this is where our/your faith comes into play. It's God's plan, his road, or his path and we as human flesh fight because we want control of the road. We want to control our road and where it goes, and what it does and God is supposed to sprinkle us with greatness because we are good or bad, but God is still giving. You see, this is superficial faith !!! So in good or bad times we must give thanks. He wants us to walk by faith and not by sight. The road has bumps, and if we just depend on our senses, life would be one long roller coaster with no exit. No stops, no getting off, and I don't know about you, but after about an hour or so that would get sickening !!! So sit back and relax. If we rely on God everything will become smooth and steady. We will still be riding a roller coaster, but there will be stops and starts, places to get on, places to get off--all in all a giant adventure we call life !!! You see peace can come to us if we stop sweating the small stuff, trust our faith, trust in God, and remember like the passage said, "be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, [and I love the way it says that "all circumstances"] for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ." Start your day off with a thank you, and right before you go to bed say thank you too irregardless of whether it was a good day or a bad day. If tomorrow comes, you are blessed, if it doesn't, you are needed elsewhere. So just remember tomorrow might never come. Today is a gift !!! Thanks. Jeff da Plumber until next time... Peace !!!