Give thanks

In the last two weeks, my patience was tested three times.

Case 1: A local courier who claims delivery in one day failed to deliver an important package I sent. I had to call them up for three days after I learned my friend didn’t get my parcel. It finally got delivered two days later. During my calls to them,  I was tense and irritated.

Case 2: A lending company staff kept calling me to ask if I was Priscilla (not the actual name used). For several times I told them I’m not the person but they insisted that my mobile number was Priscilla’s and that I should tell them my name to prove I am not Priscilla. I declined to do that until they threatened to sheriff all my properties for nonpayment of my loan. During the series of calls, I became exasperated until I challenged them to go to Priscilla’s address and take all the properties they want to get.

Case 3: I was booking a flight online for my brother who’s coming home from Singapore. It was almost midnight and wanted to get the promo fare so I dared not sleep without closing the transaction. But just as I was in the last page to charge the airfare to my credit card, the system stated popping out error notices and told me to check my contact details. I went to step 1 again but the same thing happened when I was in the payment step. Afraid that two charges have been made to my credit card, I dialed the Customer Service number. I redialed many times and hang on to the phone for more than an hour. I was sleepy, tired and irritated about how a simple flight booking could take me ages to complete!

The bad news is that I DID succumb to impatience and there was a thin line between frustration and anger in my actuation. The good news is that I remembered to call on God to grant me serenity as well as humility to accept the way I complained and acted righteously to those I talked with.

And the best news of them all is that God taught me to be thankful even in trying circumstances like those.

It’s so easy to be thankful when things are going great for us. But when what we want is not happening, we puff, huff and grumble. But God tells us to be thankful in ALL circumstances. It is His will (1 Thessalonians 5:18) so we should not resist His plan if we want blessings to come.

Psalm 100:4—“Enter into his courts with thanksgiving…”  holds the key to intimacy with God. Using that key we can unlock a powerful encounter with Him and a spiritual principle comes into operation for blessings to come to us.

Back to my case 1: Even if the parcel was delivered late, God whispered to me to call the courier officer and the delivery man and thank them personally for the solution. God let me experience the joy of saying “thank you” to the two surprised persons (a complainant thanking them!)

Case 2: After the last irritating call of the lending company, I prostrated before the altar and asked God’s forgiveness for not stretching my patience. I asked him for a chance to make amends. And right after I said that, my phone rang again, and when another officer insisted about my “Priscilla” identity again, I was already calm and empathizing with their problem. Immediately after that, I gave out a big “yes!” for having tempered my emotions and thanked God for redeeming myself.

Case 3: Even if took me almost two hours to complete my airline booking by phone (when it could have been done online in 5 minutes), I got two rewards: there was no double charging to my credit card AND the total fare was less by P3,000 had I booked the flight online.

Truly, when we just follow Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always,” we receive the blessings. “Thank you” is the magic word that God wants to hear always.

Here’s how to do this.

1.  Thank Him for different things, or for one thing repeatedly. If nothing good comes to mind, just say “thank you Lord,” over and over. After awhile, notice that you stop thinking about yourself and your problems, and you find yourself focused on eternity. The atmosphere changes.

2.  Praise God for who He is, what He has done, what He is going to do. This will make us experience His powerful presence and give us hope. If nothing comes to mind, simply declare “I praise you Lord”.

Thanksgiving is the magnet that attracts the blessings we need if we do one thing—follow His will, obey His words and listen to His voice.

Being thankful should be in word and in spirit. Instead of grumbling and getting angry, don’t let your mouth say anything negative. Instead, rejoice in the spirit so that only words of faith can come out of our mouth. Words like: “God will take care of this,” “God will provide,” “I will be okay because God will give me strength,”  “God will find a way for me to get out of this trouble,” “He will not abandon me,” etc. etc.

God’s Word is powerful. And if He listens to your words of faith, He will act quickly to show you He is bigger than the biggest problem you think you have—even while you still don’t see anything positive happening yet.

Psalm 100:4—“Enter into his courts with thanksgiving…” Now go and spend some time with Him in His courts now. That’s enough to open the gate of blessings.