No doubt you’ve witnessed glass shattering—a baseball blasting through a window in your home, a vase crashing to the floor, or simply a glass of iced tea falling out of your hand.
There are times when we can feel our lives shatter into a million little pieces. Sometimes it’s the consequences of bad decisions we’ve made. It can be the result of unexpected events, or even something that happened to you that you had no control over. If you find yourself in such a place today, know that it’s normal to feel stuck. Often it’s difficult to know where to begin. Let me share with you one way you can find the encouragement to begin to pick up the pieces.
It’s time to pray it out. The best place to start when your heart is broken, your finances are a mess, your children rebel or you’ve suffered a great loss, is to drop to your knees in prayer. God loves you and will meet you right in the middle of the mess. Open the floodgates and pour your heart out to Him. His arms are open wide to receive your hurts and pain.
Now, you might not like what I’m going to say next, but thanksgiving can bring peace and stability in the midst of the chaos and hurt. It’s easy to be thankful when life is going your way. It’s much, much, much more difficult to express thankfulness to God (and others), when you are trying to figure out how to put things back in place.
Even when things seem to be at their very worst, when you’re thankful for what you still have —your relationship with God, your faith, your life, your health, your family and friends supporting you, your resources, and so on—it changes how you think and act. This kind of thanksgiving is not merely an emotional response to something good that’s happened. It’s intentional, something you offer to God during the difficult times.
Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” That sounds difficult, I know, but it’s incredibly powerful, because when you express thanksgiving with your words and in prayer, it will displace doubt and increase your sense of emotional well-being and fill you with peace.
