I was told that the first thoughts when you wake up dictate the entire course of the day. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Proverbs 4:23 says “be very careful about what you think, your thoughts run your life.” It’s very evident that every morning when we wake up and we think of the negative, that is exactly how our day is going to run and flow. The opposite is just the same. If we think of all of the great and amazing things God has done for us and the things that God has in store for us, we are setting ourselves up to have a prosperous and blessed day.
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to “rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This is not a coincidence that God always wants you to be in an attitude of gratitude and to always have your thoughts fixated on His Goodness despite what the natural may look like in your life. When we give thanks in every circumstance, we are allowing our faith to move and remind ourselves that God is good, He is faithful, He is trustworthy with our lives, and that He will get us through whatever we are facing.
I don’t know what you are currently going through, but I want to encourage you every morning to first thank God for 10 things in your life off of the top of your head. Once you begin to see the great things He has done for you and the things He has in store for you through prayer, you will begin to stay in an attitude of gratitude and begin to rejoice with His joy which is your strength. Jesus knows exactly where you are at and where you want to be. It is time to activate your faith and to thank Him by faith for the things unseen because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen according to Hebrew 11:1. It says in James chapter 2 that faith without works is dead. What does that mean? Yeah, you can have faith that everything will be okay, but what are you doing about that now? If there isn’t the corresponding action then did you truly believe it would work out for the good?
Faith is waking up every day and thanking God for 10 things you are grateful for. Faith is smiling when you don’t even want to smile because you know joy is on its way. Faith is praising Jesus through the tough times because you know this too shall pass. Act on that faith, have an attitude of gratitude each day and you will begin to see the hand of Jesus move in your life!
