Faithbase

Hey, faith-based friends and family. Blessed to see you today. I don't know about you, but sometimes it is hard to take every thought captive, right? Maybe excruciating. I've noticed in my own personal walk with the Lord that when I'm just doing something I really dislike, for example, there's something I won't name specifically that I do every week, and I really do not enjoy doing it, and it lasts quite a while, and when I'm doing it, in my mind a little voice whispers, man, I hate this, and then what happens is it's like a snowball effect. It keeps getting bigger and bigger. I start echoing that one line in my head about how much I dislike it, and then I'm looking for more and more reasons why I dislike it. My brain starts looking for truths to support that statement. Just like when we say, oh, I can't do this, or I'm not good at this, we look for truths to support it, and I've noticed that in this battle for my mind, if I will just go back to a gratitude feast about the countless ways the Lord has blessed me, it just changes how I feel in my heart and my spirit. It just brings hope and joy when I'm spiraling into a place of negativity, and I know that we're approaching Thanksgiving. It's a great time to give thanks, of course, but I would encourage you to make it like a pattern of your life, like a rhythm and routine, to have gratitude feasts. It could be 30 seconds, it could be five minutes, but just have gratitude feasts, whether you're driving your car, you're in your prayer time, but just list things that you're grateful for, and it will change what's happening in our hearts and in our minds. We start looking for blessings, and we see so many, so just encourage you. Remember 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul tells the Thessalonians to give thanks in all circumstances, at all times, whether we're going through a dark night of the soul, or we're experiencing great joy and breakthrough, but just cultivate a heart of gratitude. It changes something within us. It also makes us expectant for more, because we remember how good the Lord's been to us. So I encourage you, as I remind myself, as I try to guard my thoughts, let's cultivate just a mindset of gratitude, and I guarantee that you'll see fruits and benefit of it. Blessings to you today.