Do you ever feel like God gives you more than you can handle? Do you sometimes feel like, “wow, God, what are you trying to do to me? Another trial, another hardship?”

Recently, I’ve gone through one of the most trying time periods of my life. I say “time period” because just when I thought one trial had ended, another one began. There was a point where I was scared of something going right because I kept having a feeling that something would go terribly wrong if it did! Long story short, my puppy ran away, got hit by a car, (she’s better now), baby Nolan, (who was 4 months old at the time) and I got in a car accident and my car was totaled; I was out of a car, had back pain, a minor fracture in my wrist, stress, anxiety, the baby was teething, Dylan and I weren’t sleeping, we were easily upset, and a multitude of other issues all happened within a month. I was in and out of doctor appointments every week it seemed like. I was scared. I was tired. I felt lost.

Have you ever felt this way?

When we find ourselves in situations or times of life that we feel like we just can’t get ahead, we often forget to praise the Lord. Yes we still pray for His help, but are we thanking Him, worshiping Him, finding joy in our circumstances?

When something goes wrong time after time, we tend to sink into pits.

Pits of self-pity, depression, anxiety, stress, worry, anger, resentment, bitterness ect. These pits are never-ending downward spirals and they all stem from our flesh. Our flesh wants to feel bad when we are hurting. Our flesh wants others to feel bad for us when we are struggling. Our flesh wants to worry, to be anxious, to be angry. And when we feel bad for having self-pity or being angry about our circumstances, we feel guilty and ashamed.

Do you see what I mean about that never-ending downward spiral now? 

When we allow our circumstances to control the way we feel our feelings become our decision makers and that is never a good thing! Our feelings always make the worst decisions. For example, when we feel anxious about something like a difficult situation or a relationship or problem, we tend to act in haste. When we feel scared, we act out of fear, dragging everyone else down around us. When we feel angry about what is happening, we act out in anger to those around us. This all comes from how we handle situations and if we choose to act in the flesh or in God’s Spirit.

So how do we conquer our flesh?

The one sure way to conquer our flesh and choose to hand things over to God is by praise.

We need shut out the rest of the world, our problems, our friends, our worries, our disappointments and we need to close our eyes and worship Jesus, even – especially when its hard.

When King David went through any type of hardship or trial, what did he do? Well, we have an entire book in the Bible written mostly by him that are all compilations of his songs that he sang, praising God when he was in distress. When Paul and Silas were imprisoned we read in Acts that they were singing praise to God:

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25

When we praise Jesus in the midst of trials we are simply shifting our focus from self, to Christ, from our troubles, to God’s glory, from sin and death, to life and grace.

I love this quote from my favorite author, Nancy Missler:

“…worship can happen even in our darkest hour. It can happen even when life seems hopeless, even when all we can do is affirm our love and His Lordship. Worship, then, is simply an act of our heart-it’s being so overwhelmed by the revelation of God’s love, that we respond in unabashed loving gratitude.” -Nancy Missler, Private Worship

Being thankful and grateful in the midst of our day to day struggles brings us an opportunity that lifts us above our current circumstance and gives us a new and fresh perspective.

It turns our eyes to Jesus-we end up looking to Him which is the one and only cure for any difficulty. If we let our trials and circumstances rule over our hearts with fear and worry, we will automatically lose sight of Christ because He does not dwell in fear. He does not dwell in sin, shame, guilt, anxiety, or discontentment. His Spirit is able to shine forth when our hearts are surrendered to Him in praise.

Sometimes, when you find yourself in the midst of chaos, when your hope is gone and you are just DONE, all you can do is kneel down bow your head and say Jesus, I am broken, but you are WORTHY, you are good, you are beautiful and you love me.

Transform your thoughts, don’t look inward at your problem, look up, that is your solution.

The next time you find yourself in the middle of a messy day, where nothing is going right, your job sucks, the kids are fighting again, you feel lonely, your friends are being mean, ect. just stop, shut your brain off and all of the feelings swirling around in your head and close your eyes. Think of something that IS good, something that you love, something that makes you smile and thank Jesus for it. Thank Him for who He is and what He wants to do for you and your situation.

I know how hard it can be to try to be thankful when we are hurting. I know how ridiculous it can sound, “praise Him, even in the storm” ect. But I also know that power that praise holds for our lives. I know how God is powerful and able to save if we only ask Him. You don’t need to do an entire Bible study or turn on worship music when you are upset, all you need to do is find something to be thankful for.

I have a new book called “Grateful Praise!” and here is something I mention in the book about this same topic:

“When it comes to spending time with Him, Jesus doesn’t care how scholarly a Christian you are. He doesn’t need only those who are able to spend hours studying theology and scripture. All He needs is a heart willing to speak to Him, even if only for five minutes. Sometimes it’s impossible to get a Bible study into every day. But it’s not impossible to recognize His hand in our day and whisper a small prayer of thankfulness for it.”

Cultivating a heart of thankfulness will change us from the inside out by giving us a new mindset-one that is centered in Christ, not our circumstances.

Don’t get stuck in that downward spiral. Pull yourself up and out by finding even just one thing to be thankful for and praising God for it. 

“When we pray and send up our thankfulness to the Lord, it becomes our very own way of worship, a beautiful song that’s only known and understood by you and Jesus.” -another excerpt from my new journal, Grateful Praise!

I wrote this journal so that we would all be able to stop and think about what God has given us. We journal about these things so that we can REMEMBER what God has done for us, what he has brought us through in the past, and what prayers He has answered.

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. ” Deuteronomy 8:2

If you want to go through this journal to cultivate a heart of thankfulness you can get a copy here.

I am praying for you dear sister. Keep your head up and your eyes on Jesus. His never-failing love will guide you “all the way”. God bless!