Well Versed Woman
Well Versed Woman
Building Your Gratitude Practice
It's the start of the holiday season with Thanksgiving upon us. Have you ever thought of thankfulness as the secret weapon many people use to live a joyful life? Being grateful is so much more than a once-a-year celebration. Even God Himself teaches us in His word about the importance of an attitude of gratitude. Stay tuned as co-hosts Renée and Theresa walk you through adopting a gratitude practice for the next year!
It is Thanksgiving week. And I can't begin to tell you what a great holiday this is. And I'm so glad that we have it here in the United States. I know other countries have it as well on a different day, but I want to talk about the importance of gratitude. I have a friend that actually took months out of his life to travel the country to say, thank you for everyone in his life. That made a difference. Oh my gosh. What he learned about an attitude of gratitude, the whole world knows how important being thankful is. And we're going to tell you and show you today where it actually started and all the things in the word that speak to this attitude of gratitude. Welcome to episode 75 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller and I'm Theresa Morgan. Let's see Renee and I love to come to you week after week to perfectly imperfect women. We love to share our faith, our life's journeys with you so that you as well can hook into this great and mighty and awesome loving God that we serve and walk with each day. And this God that we are so thankful for above everything, helds can be part of your life as well. And that's what we're talking about before we get started each episode, we actually understand that we need to invite him to be with us at any given point in our day, before we start each week, we take 20 seconds to actually ask God to be here with us this very minute of this very day. We want you to do the same and ask God to open your eyes, to see and your ears to hear and your heart, to know what he would share with you today. So let's get started with those 20 seconds. Be very, still take some slow deep breaths. The 22nd start right now.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:That's it. That's 20 seconds. And guess what? I actually edited 10 seconds on today, intentionally, because if you've been listening, I'm curious if you felt that extra 10 seconds, did you feel it Teresa? I
Speaker 3:Sure did. Or nah, I was thinking, wow, uh, there's a little extra oomph that's coming to me. Uh, is I stand still and stay still in the presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Any that, those 10 little seconds more make a big difference. And yet it's 10 seconds out of our life. You know, Theresa how passionate I am about trying to encourage everyone to have this still time. It's becoming more and more important. I know for me, the crazier things get the busier we get as holiday season approaches. We actually need to take more still time just to keep ourselves at peace. Don't you think
Speaker 3:[inaudible], you know, what's coming to mind as you talk about that is a picture in a memory of when I was a very, very young Christian, a very good friend of mine came over, who was also a Christian, and we just went into prayer for a time, not a long time. And after that, I can remember looking to my friend, Patty and say, Patty, do you feel like your soul, your soul has just taken a bath in peace and calm bubble salts. So that's what the word of God does. Renee. We tangibly felt the presence of God as we prayed, as we gave, thanks is we were finding the scriptures, believing God for those very scriptures that were going to meet the need of the how're in really, that's a nice introduction and what we're talking about today, Renee,
Speaker 1:It is, and again, to spend just a little more time on this truce, I love that bubble salts that you said, and it's, it is it's so funny how being still is almost foreign. It almost, you know, throws us into the spiritual atmosphere and, you know, it's, it's like a whole nother level on planet earth. You know, there's the ground and our homes and, and this atmosphere where the spirit resides and can be heard and the peace comes flooding in, oh, I just encourage everybody Theresa to take that time, to feel that peace. And while we're doing that, what do you and I always, always do probably first as we enter into that space and you're right, it is what we're talking about today. You know, I know for me, I give thanks for that quiet time. Thanks for that peaceful time. Thanks for the reminder that God gives me to be still because I sure need to be reminded. It doesn't come
Speaker 3:Naturally. I would say for any of us, right? That's so very true, Renee, you know, there, all of us have something to be thankful for all of us this morning, as I'm putting my makeup on, you know, getting ready to come to work and do our recording. And I was thanking God just for creating me. And when you start at the top of your head and go to the toes of your feet, my goodness, I mean the intricacy of how he made the human body and the breath that we breathe and the provisions that were made for us to have a healthy and wholesome life is overwhelming. When you think about it. And I believe Paul, the apostle Renee knew that he knew that Psalm 22 3 says that God inhabits the praises of his people. If we look at a lot of Paul's writings, he starts out with thanking God, um, Philippians four, six to seven, we can look, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, here's the key Renee with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and mind through Christ. Jesus, my goodness, you know, in the Greek that says the peace of gout, God, mounts, Garrison, you know, that brings into my imagination. In my mind, our armor, the armor of God, mounting Garrison, strong horses, strong authority coming in saying no evil shall be fall. You nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Everything is good. Everything is fine. It's protected. It's provided for this piece comes in as an anchor, as a shield in God himself does that. So when we realized God inhabits the praises, we can understand it because we know how graceful and loving he is. And the blood of Jesus has already made a way is the Bible says in Hebrews, come boldly to the throne of God that you may obtain help and mercy in your time of need. One of the keys or the steps to come boldly is to make sure we throw on our knapsack of praise in the morning. And as we're walking to the throne, we open that sack and we open our mouth and we say, praise you, Jesus, thank you father. Thank you for this day. Just thank I thank you. In as we give praise and Thanksgiving, he inhabits that in wisdom begins to flow joy. That's in our spirit begins to bubble up in before you know it, we're taking that bath with salts and bubbles of his peace Renee. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. No matter what we've done, no matter what we've done, no matter what situation we're in, we can enter that bathing of our soul because he knows how to meet that meet. And he has the plan to resolve whatever the problem is.
Speaker 1:So true. And we're always gonna probably tie back to Romans 8 28, where we can give Thanksgiving because we know, and that's how that scripture starts Theresa, because we know all things work together for good. So what you're saying is we thank him in all circumstances because he is God. He has ordered our steps. He has the plan for our life. Although I couldn't see it when I got a kidney tumor or your sicknesses, we can see the good that came out of it subsequently. And we trust. And this attitude of gratitude is prevalent throughout the world. Even non-believers understand the power of being grateful and what it does for the renewing of our minds, for the shifting of our circumstances. It is so powerful. And when you believe that God is responsible for everything and understand and know that, and your attitude of gratitude is all shifted to him. Oh my gosh, he inhabits the praises of his people. As you said,
Speaker 3:This is for you. So we enter into prayer time. We enter into time with the Lord we enter in and we all share in his presence by opening our mouth giving thanks, giving praise. And once we do, we can see why this is the will of God, because our mind shifts off of our problems to the one who can fix our problems or our mind shifts from the joy we're experiencing onto the one who brought the joy in the first place. And it's that inter action of relationship that corroboration with the Lord collaboration with him, that is such a beautiful dynamic that God intended in the first place. When he created human beings, we were not meant to walk planet earth alone. We were always meant to walk with him. He is our shepherd. He is our guide. He is our forever lover. He's the one that raises our, he's the one that knows us better than we know ourselves. He's the one that can be trusted to bring us on that good path, to bring us everything that we need in this life for victory and for growth.
Speaker 1:So true. And I love what Dr. Caroline leaf said, Theresa, which is thanking praise and worship is to kickstart the process of getting in the love zone. Let's talk about that. We talk about love a lot. And of course we do, because God is love, but that gets us in that Love's zone, right? Teresa.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness. I'm so glad you brought her up. So did we, we should probably introduce her just for a minute. She's not on our PR she's not on our program, but we would love for her to be on it someday. She is a communication pathologist and a cognitive neuroscience. She specializes in cognitive and metacognitive, neuro psychology. So what does that, what does that mean? She's written many books. One is who switched off your brain. So she has studied the brain and the neurons that fire, you know, she says that the brain fires in a positive way when we come in with Thanksgiving, wow. We're in a no wonder. God is telling us, come on in with Thanksgiving because the creator of our brain knows that this is a way to jumpstart the chemistry and all the good chemicals that bring us the feelings of self-control and wellness. She says that the praise, when we praise, that's even deeper than Thanksgiving, and this increases the growth of new dendrites strength is built. The Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength. She said, when we worship, we are accessing the wisdom of God. And I am so grateful that neuroscience is now confirming because of the technology we have. It's confirming what God wrote in his word all along Renee. So, Hey, let's follow the good in the right pattern that God has given us for the joy, for the trust and for the faith that we put in his word, because it has a chemical effect on our bodies. And that's what brought the peace. If we go back to my testimony of praying with my friend Patty, and I said, pat, I noticed a tangible piece of my soul. Like, like it's been babe little, did I know Renee that the chemistry in my brain as faith started to be deployed, that my brain was lining up to exactly what God knew all along. And we were beginning to trust him for him.
Speaker 1:I was very word. I know Teresa. I love that too. That, that the times we're living in are so exciting because it's catching up with the principles, God put in the word, you know, you and I talk a lot about how this Bible is our user manual to get through planet earth as a human being. And God put these words in. And this understanding before the humans had the science catch-up and it just is so much more clear to me that we can believe today. We should be believing more than our ancestors, because we now have science backing up all these things that are in God's word. So if you're listening and again, you're not sure that this Bible was anything very important. This is another little check mark in your box of how things line up. There's a lot that Theresa and I have talked about, about the renewing of our minds and God created us. So he knows how he made us. And that's why he put these principles right in the book so that we could follow them on faith until the science caught up. It's going to be interesting, like as the world goes Teresa, and you know, of course, when we get to have, and how all this is going to be very clear to us when we get rid of these little finite minds of ours. But this idea that neuroscience has caught up with what happens to the chemistry in our brain. When we shift our attitude, you know, yesterday morning, I go out for my walk in the morning and I was feeling down. It's been all about a long couple of weeks for all kinds of reasons. And I thinking to myself, wow, you know, I'm feeling kind of depressed. I'm feeling down. And I put the word of God in my little air buds or air pods or whatever. We call those things. And by the time I got back, I felt so much better. Now that doesn't mean that it didn't come. It doesn't come back or tomorrow. I might feel that again. But in those times, especially I have to be diligent. And especially we have to develop this practice, this practice of Thanksgiving. It's not something that comes naturally. I think it comes more naturally to some, some were raised with this idea. I know I have a sister-in-law who just with out a doubt all the time, I get a, thanks. A thank you card in the mail. No matter what happened, I know it's coming after I've been with her. She's got that attitude of gratitude and it's such, such a difference in our lives.
Speaker 3:Sure does Renee, you know, we can call praise and Thanksgiving, not only the element that bathe as our souls and brings peace, but we can look at it through our faith. Of course, is our greatest battle weapon or an a, you know, what came to me is I was studying and preparing for this episode is what happened to Paul and Silas? Oh my goodness. I'm going to bring our listeners to the book of acts. And it is chapter 16, verses 25 to 28. Now look at how powerful this is. Paul, the apostle Paul and Silas. They were thrown in jail once again, you know, preaching the gospel. Uh, unfortunately, you know, Ken bring enemies. So as they were preaching and delivering people from the demonic strongholds in life, you know, others got quite upset and the authorities to be at the time, threw them in jail. You can read about the particulars. But what I want to get at is what is written in God's word. It says, in acts, it says, but at midnight, Paul and Silas, Silas were praying and singing hymns to God in the prisoners were listening to them. So look what they were doing. They were beaten. They were sore. Their souls. Must've been really down in the dumps, but Paul and Silas knew about this secret weapon. If you will, this tool of praise and worship. So they not home, it not only was affecting them, but it says the PR the other prisoners in the other cells were listening. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, the guard, if you will awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called out with a loud voice saying, do yourself no harm for, we are all here. And he brought them out and said, SIRS, what must I do to be safe? So Paul and Silas said to them, believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. And you will be saved you and your whole household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him into all who were in his house, the jailers house. So my goodness. So God delivered them all from it started with praise and worship Renee. And I think to myself, what would have been the outcome of this situation? If Paul and Silas were not singing and praising to the Lord, it brought the presence of God. It, God started to move. It affected not only Paul and Silas, they were delivered from an unjust sentence in prison. The guard saw what was going on. It was a testimony to him. He invited Christ into his heart and then his whole household. Likewise. So boy, this was remarkable that from the seed of praise and Thanksgiving, look what grew in a salvation for many
Speaker 1:Wow, such a great story, Theresa. And it reminds me too, of the fact that we have a very big holiday surrounded around Thanksgiving, which was really about, you know, the settling in our country and those settlers being people of God. And they wanted to give thanks. And it's held all these years, which to me, Theresa is a Testament to exactly how important this Thanksgiving attitude is. It's really a beautiful thing. And I'm thinking about, hopefully we've heightened, everyone's awareness of this as an attitude, as a practice in our lives. And this could be the start of a whole new year where we try to increase our attitude of gratitude. If we've already got one or really, really focused on it, just that one thing for a whole year and your life will change, right? I mean, look like you're saying that what the drastic change with Paul and Silas, it just permeates everything Theresa.
Speaker 3:It sure does. Renee. And I see that are in our time on this podcast is coming to a close. And I'm looking at our next scripture, which is Philippians chapter one verses three to six. And I'd like to turn this into a prayer. If I may Renee at the end of this podcast today, and I would like to pray for you, our listeners, and what I would say from the book of Philippians chapter one verses three to six father, God, I just thank you. I praise you upon every remembrance of every listener who's out there, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for them, with joy Lord, I pray that you'd meet all of their need, according to your riches and glory. I pray that they would come to, um, father, a faith that endures Lord, I pray that if they don't know you father, that they would to know you in such a beautiful, tangible way and that they may know the height and the depth, the width and the breadth of your love for them. So father, I'm going to continue in Philippians one Lord, and I would pray that their fellowship in the gospel Lord would be so rich and deep father and father, I pray. And I'm very confident of this very thing, because it's in your word that you father who began a good work in each of the listeners, you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So father you who began a good work, you're going to complete it. Father, your word says that you are the author and the finisher of our faith. I am so grateful that we have a loving God that we serve. That's full of grace and mercy father. I thank you that your mercies are new and fresh every morning for every listener and every child of yours father. I thank you father, even for the people that you reign the sun and the sh in that you bring down water and son, father, and you provide father needs of all those living on the earth Lord. And so father, I pray that this Thanksgiving would be memorable Lord, and that this would be a time where they look to you, the one God and creator of the universe. And I want to give thanks in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Amen, Theresa. That was beautiful. And I love the reminder that if you don't pray before your Thanksgiving meal, think about doing it today. I know a lot of families adopted that, that policy of going around the table and talking about what they're thankful for. And I think it's wonderful. And I know, you know, the times that we've done that, it makes some people, a little skirmish. Like they don't know what to say, or they think they're on the spot. You know, just, just be thankful for the family and the time to gather and the piece that we're enjoying right now, uh, in, in our country and around the world. I also want to remind us all of what you said, Theresa, which I think is so amazing that look at Thanksgiving and this attitude as a secret weapon to change circumstances. Oh, I, I just love that analogy, Theresa. So I think with that, we wish everyone and all your families, a beautiful holiday, a beautiful Thanksgiving time. And we get to enter an even more fun season coming up, which I love CISA. And we'll have a lot of fun podcasts over the next several weeks. So please stay tuned. But we also have a favorite scripture. If you've been listening, Teresa,
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Renee
Speaker 1:Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Thanks for listening. We love you. Bye now. Thank you for listening. We'd like you to subscribe to this podcast. So go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Also rate and review. It really helps you to be part of spreading the word of God, because the more reviews we have, the more our podcast gets shared. We also have a Facebook community. So ask to join that community and we'll put you in there and you can enjoy an easy way to ask us questions or make comments. And last but not least are the show notes, which in our podcast is the word of God. We list the scriptures that we talked about. This episode, you can print them out. You can review them. You can meditate on them day and night until next week. Happy Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving.