Transcript
When you're in crisis, it's very easy to think more about the crisis than anything else. To wake up every morning, the first thing you do is you get up on your phone, you want to find the next stats, you want to find out how many cases of COVID-19 are in your state or in your town or what's the global prediction, and you want to read the latest expert, what they have to say about the continuation of this scary thing. The problem with that is that you can develop a heart habit where you're trouble-meditating, problem-meditating, and God-forgetting. And when you do that, the trouble looms larger and larger, and God seems smaller and smaller and the result of that is fear. I'm talking about that paralyzing, panic-producing, anxiety-resulting fear.
Gratitude Is a Weapon Against Fear
And so, I want to encourage you with this. That a powerful weapon, maybe the best weapon against fear is gratitude. Now, when we're given a heart to gratitude, we're not denying reality. What we're doing is we're looking at reality through the lens of all the things for which we should be thankful. And I want to encourage you to start vertically.
First, think of God. Give thanks for who He is - His Holiness, His power, His faithfulness, His righteousness, His grace, His justice, His faithfulness, His patience, His love. And then think of all the things that God has done for you, all the blessings He's lavish down on you, the blessings of His grace, the blessings of His patience, the blessings of all the things that He provides for you, the resources of His goodness in your life.
After you've given thanks vertically, then give thanks horizontally. I'll give you three categories: people, places and things. Thank God for the people that He has placed in your life, who you know love you, who walk with you through whatever you go through, or the places in your life that for which you should be thankful. Maybe that's a local park where you can walk or your own home where you have a place to be safe during this crisis.
Things to Be Thankful For
How about things in your life? The technology, for example, that we have that we take for granted that can allow us all to be connected. Be thankful. You know, when David was facing horrible personal crisis in Psalm 27, he says, "This is what I want to do, I want to run to the temple. I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." Now, he's not doing that to deny the reality of what he's facing, but he understands he will only understand those realities properly when he looks through them, at them, through the lens of the stunning beauty of his redeemer.
You will only understand this crisis properly and respond to it appropriately if you look at this crisis through the stunning beauty of your Lord: His character, His grace, and the people, places, and things that He has provided for you. If you do that, you will be able to be sobered by what you're facing, make wise decisions, but not be paralyzed by fear. Listen, there are few tools more powerful against fear in this moment than gratitude, count your blessings.
