Is It Possible to Give Thanks in Everything?, episode 159

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right

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here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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Are you ready for the holidays?

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Often holidays are challenging when you love a prodigal, but sometimes good things, new

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peace, hopeful attitudes can happen, and hopefully what we are talking about today will be helpful.

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Remember if God gives you an idea as you listen, be sure to jot it down.

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A year ago, as a typical tropical storm came through, I was concerned about some roof areas

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that had begun to leak.

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Sure enough, four leaks appeared.

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Good ones that had been repaired.

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One in the garage, when I walked out there, it looked like a waterfall down the wall.

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Uh-oh.

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So two months later, I had a new roof put on and then had all the leaks and damage repaired.

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Then Hurricane Milton arrived here in Florida.

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I slept through it and was thrilled that all the repairs that I had done had held.

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Until the next morning, when I discovered the most persistent leak had reappeared, the

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roofer is coming back next week to try a new way to prevent leaking there.

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Taking care of the roof and leaks has always been my wonderful husband Steve's responsibility,

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but now it was mine.

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My thoughts and feelings were resisting it.

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I did not want to handle all of this, but my response after years of learning from God

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and practicing what he said was to say, thank you, Lord.

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When you love a prodigal, you know about hard, challenging days, months, years, the financial

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strains as well as other things like natural disasters and wars around the world.

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We often live in a constant state of uncertainty and feeling out of control.

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The children of Israel certainly lived with uncertainty and out of control.

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Coming into the unknown, famine, slavery, wars, persecutions, often they whined and

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complained, but sometimes they remembered what God had said.

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Then we read these amazing words in Psalm 95.

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Come, let us sing to the Lord.

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Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

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Let us come to him with thanksgiving.

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Let us sing psalms of praise to him, for the Lord is a great God, a great king above all

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gods.

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He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains.

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The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

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His hands formed the dry land too.

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Come, let us worship and bow down.

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Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God.

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We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care.

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So even in hard times they learned, but did not always practice, but did sometimes to

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praise God, to worship him, to give thanks for what he had done.

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Our natural response in times of uncertainty and in life with the prodigal and the fears

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and frustrations we encounter is to name everything that is wrong, to complain about

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all that we don't like.

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And that can be helpful in healing, to name our fears and displeasure, and our God receives

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our honest laments.

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But he also encourages us to give thanks in everything.

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Seriously, how do you do that?

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We remember that God is God and God is good.

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I have discovered a helpful phrase that works wonders in my heart and mind.

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The phrase is, look for the good.

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I admit it is easier to see the good in retrospect after something has happened, and I have been

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able to do that as our former prodigal is in a good place.

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But God convinced me to make this a habit early in our wilderness journey.

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I didn't do it quickly, easily, or consistently, but choosing to look for the good and give

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thanks has transformed me.

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Here are just a few of the good things that I have discovered as I have looked for the

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good in some hard situations.

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I've learned about mercy and grace, to receive them and to give them and to see how they

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changed me and my relationship with my prodigal.

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Mercy and grace.

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Good outcomes.

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Love.

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God's love is unconditional.

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He loves us no matter what we do or don't do, and he asks us to love that way too.

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Gratefully, he shares his love with us because sometimes our prodigals are hard to love.

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Prayer.

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I thought I knew how to pray, but our prodigal drove me to my knees and into a much deeper

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relationship with God, and prayer became a way of life for me.

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Perseverance.

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I had to keep relying on God to carry me through the darkest times, and he did.

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And gratitude.

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As I learned to give thanks in our prodigal journey, I also learned to do the same in

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every situation, large or small.

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Not that I always did it, but I knew to do it, and I usually and increasingly could say

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thank you in everything.

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It's good to look back and discover the good that has come from the hard, and to say thank

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you, Lord.

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But God also wants us to give thanks in the midst of the hard times.

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When we have no idea what the outcome will be, still he says, give thanks in everything.

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Recently, I had that opportunity.

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A friend and I were in Spain going to a conference.

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The person meeting us put us in an Uber and told them where to go.

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About one-third of the way, the Uber driver noticed on her phone that the ride had been

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canceled.

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Who would cancel the ride?

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Well, it was an accident from the person who put us in there, and the next Uber she was

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getting.

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It was canceled.

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We offered to pay our driver my credit card or with cash.

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Her only response was no Puedo, no Puedo.

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I knew enough Spanish to understand.

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I can't, I can't.

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She pulled to the side of the road, a very busy road, got out, took all of our six bags

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they were filled with material for the conference, took them out of the truck, put them on the

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side of the road, and then ordered us to get out of her car.

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We had no idea where we were.

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We didn't speak Spanish.

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I laughed.

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I have found laughing at hard things or scary things or surprising things is a good thing.

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It helps me.

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And I said, thank you, Lord.

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My friend did not think it was funny, but she left me there on the side of the road

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with six bags of luggage and headed out to see where she could find a taxi.

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She succeeded and we got there safely.

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The taxi driver was awesome.

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For me, that thank you, Lord, came out because I had been learning and practicing for years.

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And so instead of getting upset or fearful or distressed, thank you, Lord, was the right

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response.

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Even though we had no idea if we were in danger, probably we were, or how we in our luggage

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could find our way.

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We got the taxi.

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We arrived safely at our destination and I'm grateful for choosing to give thanks.

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It's hard a lot of times, but he says, give thanks in everything.

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So I invite you to join me in looking for the good to give thanks, even when we can't

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see the good that God will be doing.

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As the psalmist exhorts us, come, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the

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rock of our salvation.

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Let us come to him with thanksgiving.

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Let us sing psalms of praise to him.

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We're going to talk next week some more about giving thanks.

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I think you're going to really like it.

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But don't wait.

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Begin today.

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Begin to say thank you.

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And just to get in the habit in the practice, every day write down something new that you're

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thankful for, whether it's a very hard thing or a wonderful thing, but to make yourself

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get in the practice of saying thank you, Lord.

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God bless you.