If Praise recognizes who God is, Thanksgiving remembers what God has done in our lives. Praise focuses more on the nature of God – Thanksgiving focuses more on the activity of God.
Thanksgiving helps us overcome discontentment. That internal feeling that you don’t have enough, maybe that you aren’t enough, that there is something missing in your life. Discontentment really is undoing our lives. “I don’t have enough ________” Discontentment undoes marriages, friendships, careers, faith, churches . . . Discontentment just destroys things. Because it robs us of Joy, so we begin searching for something to satisfy this empty feeling.
Truth: Thanksgiving is the Gatekeeper to Joy because discontentment cannot be solved by external additions. It is an internal transformation.
Psalm 100:4 –What David is saying is that Thanksgiving unlocks the gate that leads to the presence of God, where Joy is most easily found. Discontentment leads us to the place of joylessness. Thanksgiving leads us to Joy. It fuels our Joy.
The strength of your walk with God is that you can sustain a life of joy, and it is connected to your ability to be thankful.
How to Grow Joy through Thanksgiving:
1). Grow Joy through Thanksgiving by Remembering. Psalm 103:1-2
If thanksgiving remembers what God has done, at the core of not giving thanks is forgetting what God has done.
2). Grow Joy through Thanksgiving by Returning.
Thanksgiving returns you to a healthy perspective of God, yourself, your circumstances, and others.
Psalm 100:3. David is adjusting his perspective to God in returning to what is true. When we get our perspective out of order, discontentment is not far off. Discontentment rushes to frustration while a thankful perspective rushes to joy. People who are discontented are often easily annoyed, frustrated and easily angered with the circumstances around them in life.
Discontentment makes the blessings of God just not feel like they are enough. The issue becomes the perspective of our lives not the value of the blessings.
3). Grow Joy through Thanksgiving by Right-Sizing.
This is when we begin to live in the reality that what God has done is more important than what we desire.
Psalm 103:1-5. David is beginning to right-size the feeling of discontentment in his life with the truths of God.
- Discontentment: “I’ve messed up too much in my life.” vs. the Right-Sized truth: “God forgives all my sins” (Psalm 103:3a)
- Discontentment: “My body is breaking down . . . cancer, sickness, age.” vs. the Right-Sized truth: “God heals all my disease” (Psalm 103:3b)
- Discontentment: “I am alone” vs. the Right-Sized Truth: God redeems your life from the pit” (Psalm 103:4a)
- Discontentment: “I’m not good enough”. vs. the Right-Sized Truth: God crowns you with love and compassion” (Psalm 103:4b)
- Discontentment: “I don’t have enough”. vs. the Right-Sized-Truth: “God satisfies my desires with good things” (Psalm 103:5a)
There’s a right-sized truth for every feeling of discontentment we have in our lives.
God is for your Joy. And joy can grow through Remembering, Returning, and Right-Sizing.
TRUTH: Grow Thankfulness to breakthrough Discontentment.