426. Celebrating God's Grace, Thankfulness

How often do we ask for all we want? t’s ok, the Word says ask and we shall receive.

Yet how often are we thankful for exactly where we are and all we have at the moment. Could God be using every moment we are given to grow us, strengthen us, make us more like his Son, Jesus?

 Keeping our focus on Him and being thankful is key! Join Rusanne Carole as she talks about being thankful no matter what!

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 Welcome to Celebrating God’s Grace, a Women World Leader’s Podcast, where each Friday we talk about God’s grace and share how good He is and how we can encourage each other.

Don’t forget to join us each Monday where our founder & Co-CEO, Kimberly Hobbs, interviews women from all over the world – women of God who have a story to share – and how God has shown up in their life. And Wednesdays, where our Co-CEO and Bible Teacher, Julie Jenkins, brings us a study of God’s Word and its application to our lives.

How many times have we gone to the Lord to cast our burdens?

How many times have we gone asking the Lord for something – Lord, help me, help my children, help my husband, help my family.

We ask for peace in our homes, We ask for healing in our bodies. We go to the Lord FOR so many things! WE ASK.

And this is fine. The Word says Ask. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus told His disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you.” This should encourage us to ask for whatever is on our heart, talk to God and in faith believe that God hears us and will grant His blessings upon us, trusting He knows best. Our heavenly Father graciously offers us freedom to ask for things!

Matthew 6:8 tells us “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” But in the next verse he tells us to pray for our needs. I personally don’t think that’s for us to ASK, I think it’s to prompt us to talk to Him, be in relationship with Him, open our heart to Him and spend the time with Him that He so deeply loves. His children choosing to spend the time with HIM.

I know I have four boys and when they want to spend time with me it makes me feel so very special. My eldest son asked me out to go to the movies and when he picked me up he actually changed his mind saying, “hey mom, let’s skip the movie and go somewhere where we can talk. We haven’t talked, really talked in a while.” My heart skipped a beat, knowing he wanted to talk and share with me, hear from me, maybe ask me some questions, or just listen – even possibly asking my opinion on something that was on his mind.

I imagine God may feel that way. He just wants us to want to talk to Him throughout our day.

But how many times do we go to God to simply say THANK YOU!

How often do we take the time out to pray and say Lord, I am grateful?

If you go and speak to Christians who live in some of the poorest parts of the world, you would be amazed at how thankful they are for the LITTLE that they have, despite their lack, despite being uncomfortable – they are RICH in FAITH! They are ever so grateful to GOD because they can still see the GOODNESS of GOD – even in the middle of their problems, their challenges.

Psalm 34:8 tells us, “taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

How many of us can be grateful in the midst of a storm?

How many of us can be THANKFUL TO GOD even when things seem to be falling apart?

How could we be grateful to GOD knowing that no matter what we go through or face that He will never harm us or forsake us? Could it all be for our teaching, our good, to make us stronger in Him, closer to Him, more Christ-like.

It is good to remember just how good God has been to you? For the believers I would encourage you to meditate on this. Remember this!

How has God revealed Himself to you? Ask God to bring all He has done to your remembrance, even write it down. Ponder and meditate on this – how good He has been and thank HIM!

For those of you who have not yet met Jesus I pray you will. I pray you will meet Him in a mighty way – Know Him and  His goodness, know all He has done for you! Jesus died just for you – yes, to have eternal life but to have abundant life here with the days we are given. Thank you Jesus.

The Bible tells us an interesting story about thankfulness. In Luke 17:11-19 (NIV)

Jesus Heals Ten Men with Leprosy

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Only one leper remembered to say thank you.

Had a heart filled with gratitude.

Friends, I encourage you to go to Lord every day and thank Him.

Let us pray (prayer)

Thank you for listening to WWL’s podcast. Join us each Monday, Wednesday and Friday as we explore together God’s extravagant love & your courageous purpose. Visit our website at www.womenworldleaders.com to submit a prayer request, register for an upcoming event, and support the ministry.  From His heart to yours, we are WWL. All content is copyrighted by WWL and cannot be used without written consent.