Sunday Teaching: A Thankful Heart 1 - A key To Overflowing Joy!

Do you know to be thankful plays a very important and vital role to our spiritual health?. This sounds very elementary, but there is much to be learned here.
This teaching is broken up into three parts:

 1. How God sees a thankful heart & Even when things fell apart 
 2. The seriousness of unthankfulness & Symptoms of an unthankful heart 
3. How to become thankful 


Thanksgiving is a flood-gate opener to blessings, joy peace and all sorts of goodness. With thankful hearts, we can even touch the very heart of God, and King David even told us that when we approach God, enter into His gates with thankful hearts! Psalms 100:4,

 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." 
  

I mean it when I say that developing a thankful heart can revolutionize the quality and enjoyment of one's life!

How God sees a thankful heart?

Let's say that you had a grandson, and you went out and built him the best backyard playground in town. You spent thousands of dollars/pounds/euro/naria on it, and invested countless hours to put this together.

When you're all done, you walk your grandson into the back yard to show him to new surprise. He first screams with excitement and then he cries because he thinks of how wonderful of a grandpa he has, and gives you the biggest hug you've ever received.

Then for the next month, he can't stop playing in his new playground and continually thanks you up and down for such a wonderful gift. Wouldn't that make you feel good inside for blessing him in such a way?

You would probably want to run out and do it all over again, just because he loved it so much and was so thankful for everything you did.

Now consider if you went through all that work and spend all that money, only to have your grandson go jump on the swing a few times and leave, and act as if you haven't invested a dime in it.

Never once did he show any appreciation, or thankfulness for all you've done. Wouldn't that make you feel awful? Wouldn't that make it hard for you to continue blessing him in the future?

How do you think God feels, when He's done so much for us (He made us, gave us such wonderful bodies and minds, then when we messed up, He sent His son to die for us, etc.), and then we go throughout the day not even stopping to think about all He's done for us?

We're too busy taking our children to different outings(which is good), watching TV, and countless other things... that we don't even stop to think about all God's done for us. How do you think that makes God feel?

Do you think He gets overwhelmed with joy, and can't wait to send us more blessings? If you were in His position, would you feel that way? Wouldn't you want your people to be thankful for the goodness and blessings you have showered upon them?

When we are thankful for the goodness of God in our lives, it touches the very heart of God and encourages Him to shower even more blessings upon us.

A thankful heart is truly a floodgate to the blessings and goodness of God in our lives!

Psalms 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Even when things fell apart!

Remember the story Paul and Silas who were cast into prison, but instead of grumbling...

 "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them." (Acts 16:25)
 Now if you ask me, few of us have circumstances like Paul and Silas had to complain about. But instead of complaining, they lifted their hands to the Lord with thankful hearts and began to sing praises! Why? Because they took what Jesus said literally when He told them...
 "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (Matthew 5:11) 

They were taking God's Word seriously, and praising God despite the physical (here and now) circumstances... shouldn't we be doing the same thing today when things turn black around us? So what happened to Paul and Silas and their reservations at the local prison?  Let's find out...

 "And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed." (Acts 16:26) 

Their praises during that time touched the very heart of God, and as a result, the very ground the prison was on shook with an earthquake and they were loosed!! You see the power of praise?.

My question to you is, would God not be touched by our praises today? Would He not do the same thing for us today that He did for them?. Keep praising the lord at all times because that is the one way key to answering prayers.