David (Part 4)
(By Ben Fronczek)
To begin with I have a loaded question for you: How many of you would like to…
– Experience better health (get sick less, strengthen your immune system, increase your energy level, feel less physical pain, sleep better, even improve your chances of living longer.
– In addition, feel better emotionally, become happier and less envious of others, feel calmer and more relaxed with who you are and what you have, feel less materialistic, less self centered, more optimistic, and even more spiritual..
– And even become nicer to others, kinder, and develop better relationships with your spouse or other family members and even friends.
Who wouldn’t want to experience such improvements in their life? Well today I want to share with you how you can personally improve all these areas in your life. Not by taking some super vitamin or magic pill, rather, you can attain all of these wonderful benefits by making a habit of practicing a heartfelt emotion. That’s right you can improve your physical health, your emotional health, you personality, your social standing with others, even you career by developing this habit in your life, one that I see in the character we have been studying over the past few weeks. It is a trait or habit seen in a man or woman after God’s own heart.
And what is that trait which can improve the quality of our life so much?
If anything, # 3 in our series, David was truly a thankful individual.
That’s right; learning to become a truly thankful individual like David will not only put you in a favorable position with God, studies now show feeling gratitude and thankfulness can improve almost every other aspect of your life, even if you are going through what may seem like a difficult time.
David’s life was marked by seasons of great peace and prosperity as well as times of fear and despair. But through all of the seasons in his life, he never forgot to thank the Lord for everything that he had. It is truly one of his finest characteristics. In Psalm after Psalm David expresses his thankfulness to our Lord God by praising Him over and over.
I want to take some time to read some of his Psalms that express his gratitude:
Psalm 7:17 “I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.” (David was not only grateful, he wrote song about it)
Psalm 9:1-2 “I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.” (David wrote songs about about how thankful he was, he aslo spoke of it to others)
Psalm 28:6-7 “Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”
Psalm 56:10-13 “In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise— 11 in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? 2 I am under vowto you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”
Psalm 57:7-11 “My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. 8 Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. 9 I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. 10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalm 68:4-10, 19-21, & 33-35 “Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
Psalm 71:14-24 “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long— though I know not how to relate them all. 16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. 17 Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. 18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God? 20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. 21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once more.
22 I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. 23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I whom you have delivered. 24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long, for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion.
Psalm 72:18-19 “Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. 19 Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.
I’m not sure who wrote Psalm 100 but it sounds like David to me… (It one of my favorites!)
“1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 145 “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. 4 One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. 5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty and I will meditate on your wonderful works. 6 They tell of the power of your awesome works— and I will proclaim your great deeds. 7 They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. 10 All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. 11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. 14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 20 The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.”
You can see that David’s thanks was expressed by praising his Lord.
In Ps. 100 it says we are to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” As followers of Jesus Christ, we should follow David’s lead of thanking our Lord on a daily basis and praise Him for the blessings He pours out on our life.
If our Nation did anything right I believe it was establishing a Thanksgiving holiday. It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”, and it was to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.
Even though many in America probably don’t personally ‘thank God’ for the blessing they have, we as Christian should. As a matter of fact we are encouraged to do so in the New Testament in a number of places to do so; for example;
In Colossians 3:15-17 the Apostle Paul wrote, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
In Ephesians 5:17-20 he wrote, “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 4:4-7 he wrote “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And finally in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 he wrote “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Can it be any plainer that we should be thanking God?
So How can we become more of a grateful, thankful person?
Maybe you have a tendency to see the glass half-empty. Actually you can change that and turn thankfulness into a habit with just a little practice.
Although it may be difficult for you to see the good in life when everything seems to be going wrong, if we choose to do so, with just a little bit of effort you can experience a more relaxed, peaceful you — with no expensive therapy or without having to read long-winded books on the subject.
I’ve read that the key is to practice becoming consciously aware of the things in your life that are going right and make a habit of remembering those things (even when times are tough).
As I mentioned in my last lesson, “What you focus on will determine your reality!” Focus on the negative and tha’s what you’ll be (and vise-versa).
Some have completely changed their lives by:
- Keeping gratitude journal and writing down things that they are thankful for every night before going to bed. For example, you might feel grateful that you don’t have to deal with any serious health problems. Maybe you are thankful that your husband put away the laundry without being asked, or things went well at work. There is always, always something to be thankful for. Usually there is more to be thankful for than not. You just need learn to appreciate the blessing you have.
- Some make it a practice upon waking in the morning to think about things that they are thankful for before getting out of bed.. You could also try to make it a habit to meditate on the things you are grateful for while you drink your coffee, drive to work, or when you’re eating your lunch. “What you focus on will determine your reality!”
- Try counting how many things you can think of to be grateful for and appreciate that day while doing one of your daily routines or chores. It won’t be long before you’re finishing your chores while still thinking of things you couldn’t fit in!
I also believe thanking God for those things you are grateful for in your prayers and listing mentioning them like David did brings glory, praise and honor to our Lord as He continues to pour out His blessing on us.
The key is, the more you focus on what you are grateful for the more you will become a thankful person. (But you have to make a habit of it)
I don’t believe that the devil wants us to be grateful and appreciate what we have. I think we play right into his hands and do his will when we complain, overlook or when we are unhappy with what God has provided.
Studies have found that people who focus on what they are grateful for everyday for one week straight can experience the benefits for up to a six-month period. (List 3 things apart from you family and love ones you are grateful for today.
The benefits of becoming a grateful, thankful person are truly amazing and a blessing in themselves. And not only that, if you add a thankful heart to having a deep faith in God, loving and obeying His word, you’ll be well on your way to become a man or woman after God’s own heart!
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
All comments can be emailed to: bfronzek@gmail.com