What we originally thought would be two weeks to flatten the curve has turned into eight months of chaos and uncertainty, impacting so many areas of our lives. Frustration, fear, depression, anger and anxiety have grown. Yet they are all normal reactions to these difficulties and any type of chaos. We can choose to live in those feelings and allow them to govern our days or we can choose to be different as God has called us out to be.
Paul’s prayer to the Philippians in the opening of his epistle is eloquent and heartfelt, but more than that, Paul is pointing the Believers in Philippi to look to Jesus Christ in all circumstances. As we read his letter and think of the context from which he wrote, Paul continually astounds me. He is writing from a jail cell where he is being held by the Romans. Talk about difficulty and uncertainty! How could this man write about thankfulness and joy under such conditions? Jesus Christ. And Christ alone.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:3-11.
Paul starts his prayer with thankfulness from a prison cell! We currently may not be in a literal prison cell but some of us are in prison cells of our own making. Paul’s attitude was not based on his circumstances. What about your attitude? Do you start your prayers and conversations with thankfulness like Paul or just talk about your present circumstances?
What a shift our days would take if we began with what we are thankful for instead of thoughts and discussions focused on the negatives all around us – something which seems to multiply with each day in 2020! Imagine if we started our conversations with, “I am thankful for you!”
Let’s shift the narrative of our lives by having an attitude of gratitude in the midst of chaos. We cannot control the world or people around us, but we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, control our attitudes and actions. It can begin with you and spread to each person you touch with your new attitude.
Reach out to someone and let them know you are thankful for them. If we act on “each one, reach one”, the attitude of gratitude will spread and love will abound more and more, pointing those around us to Jesus as the source of our gratitude and great joy.
Sisters, be a light in the darkness with an attitude of gratitude. Let His Glory shine.
