Calm through the Storm...

Going through an especially trying time?  Are you about ready to pull your hair out..or someone else’s hair out?  LOL...What do we do?  Give thanks… 

I know, I know..what are you talking about, Rachel?   

Consider this verse..

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. —Ephesians 5:15-21

“Giving thanks always and for everything” is pretty clear. What should we be thankful for? Everything. Even the situations that may be stirring my anxiety into a frenzy? Yes.   Thankful that my friend hurt my feelings or that my son has health issues?   Thankful for the hurt relationships around me?   What does that look like?  How do we do that?

I believe it is an overflow of where my heart is day-to day.  Am I relying on God’s spirit or am I relying in my own power/ my flesh…..just get it done….

Two more verses to consider:

As the water reflects the face, so the heart of the man reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19     The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.  Luke 6:45    When I give-in to anger, I display my angry to those around me.   If I am focused on contentment and being thankful, I can be thankful for everything . . . even my troubles.  I need to view my circumstances in God’s hands; and then, I can attempt to call them “light and momentary troubles.”   I have to know that He is already in the process of guarding my life and coming to me with an answer, in His own time.   However, I have to admit  that His time is often way to slow for my liking. J Giving thanksgiving in prayer for all my troubles shows great faith because I am saying, God, You are way ahead of me on this. I can just leave the details that I can do nothing about to You. So,  give me the fruits of the spirit to handle this..as I wait.

2 Corinthians 4

¹ Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ² Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

¹³ It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”^[b] With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. ¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.