Thankfulness

I've been praying about a situation for a while now. I started off praying for God's will, but when it wasn't happening as fast or in the direction I thought it should have been moving I became impatient. My prayers turned into "Lord, give me this." My thought life became consumed with the issue and my peace started seeping out of my life. The focus left God's will and turned to Sondra's wants. Our church services have been starting out with the congregation gathering at the front for focused prayer. One night recently, as the congregation started to gather, a scripture popped into my mind.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Oh how wrong I had been!! a) I was anxious and letting it consume me. b) I had no thanksgiving!! I was not approaching the Lord being thankful - I was completely ignoring the blessings and benefits He had ALREADY given me. I learned a valuable lesson that I will hopefully remember for at least a couple of months! To be thankful in every situation is hard. I don't want to be thankful for the allergies. I don't want to be thankful that someone backed in to my car. I don't want to be thankful that gas is almost $4! But for every frustration - the blessings tied to it are tremendous. I have allergies, yes. But I can breathe. Someone backed into my car, yes. But I have a car. Gas is expensive, yes. But God has made a way for me to put gas in that car every week.

Thank You, Lord. Your blessings are abundant. Let me never forget that.