“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, ESV)
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 ESV
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” (Psalm 37 5-6, ESV)
Over and over in Scripture, we read that God calls us to rely on Him, rest in Him, and find our strength in Him. It’s how we were designed to live and operate in life. However, how often do we find ourselves slipping out from reliance on Him and into striving by our own strength to get by? If you’re anything like me, it’s something you find yourself wrestling with on a pretty regular basis. So it raises the question, when we find ourselves in these moments, how are we to realign ourselves to rely on God rather than our own personal strength and striving?
From my experience it can be summed up in one word: thankfulness.
When we enter into thankfulness, not only do we enter into praise, but we also orient ourselves in a posture of noticing His hand in our lives. We begin to open our eyes to see His provision and intentionality, and thus reawaken our awareness of just how much we rely on His presence.
How beautiful is this! That by the simple act of being grateful, we see how much we’ve been relying on Him this whole time, and from there can enter into the peace of the knowledge He will continue to be the pillar we can rest on. We’ve never been alone, and we can be assured we never will be.
So my friends, I encourage you, take a breath and pause for a moment. Think of something to be thankful for, a way God has been loving you that you may have overlooked, and give Him the gift of thanksgiving. In doing so, you draw back to the original design God laid out for you: to be a child, loved and provided for by their heavenly Father.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7, ESV)