Advertising Thankfulness

Did anyone else notice there seemed to be a little theme running through some of the Superbowl commercials regarding being thankful for life....especially some celebrating fatherhood that made me say AWWWWW!....and I liked the "How do you run like a girl?....throw like a girl?" commercial....who knew I could tear up over an Always commercial? HA! :)  Anyway, though thoughts and feelings are invisible, they are not insignificant.  They often guide us, warn us, bond us together...they can lead to many actions and decisions and that is why it is so important to monitor them and arrest any that break God's Laws.  Really, we need to replace them with thoughts and feelings that are pleasing to God.  The one that I often have to arrest is a desire to have something that I do not need or that leads me to covet, envy or become jealous of another.  I have learned the best way to break the power of those types of desires is through prayer and the practice of gratitude.

That is a pretty incredible statement!  If you stop and acknowledge your thankfulness you will find contentment in what God has given you....which will lead to praising Him and a whole bunch of health benefits for you.  AND, in that moment, you will not give too much value to an item, idea, or person....thus creating an idol for yourself to worship.  But, this is not a one time fix....I wish it were that simple.  We have to develop habits of right thinking and behaving.  Our pastor used a phrase in church yesterday that I have been thinking about....he said, "People do not drift toward Holiness.  Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord."  D. A. Carson

If I think about drifting today.....I'm imagining huge banks of snow building up where they should not because they are blown by the wind (some of that is not my imagination as we had a big snowstorm yesterday).  They block doorways and driveways....entrances and exits where we need to go and cannot.  The same is true with the way we can drift off course, spiritually.  It takes effort to remain purposeful....I love how D. A. Carson phrases this as grace-driven effort.  We have to live in complete purpose, but this purpose cannot be motivated by our own thoughts and feelings....otherwise we will always drift, but, if it is motivated by the gratitude we have for the grace given to us, we can stay on course.