Taking Back Tuesday: Part 1

I've never done a blog series before but I really wanted to and so today I'm starting a series that will go through the end of September.  The series is called Taking Back Tuesday.  The series will center around things that have been on my heart to take back.  As believers, we have the authority to claim the things of God for the Kingdom of Heaven.  God's word says that His will is that the Kingdom of Heaven will exist right here on Earth.  So, on Tuesdays, we're going to take things back!  Here's an idea of some of the topics I'll talk about:  gratitude,  joy, healing (uh-oh!), worship and a few others.  Get ready!

Part 1:  Taking Back Gratitude

Since when did we, especially as believers, lose our ability and desire to be grateful?  I was raised in the kind of family where forgetting your gratitude was totally a punishable act.  We were raised to be respectful, we were raised to be generous and we were certainly raised to be thankful.  I think I've mentioned before that if my brother and I were being hateful and arguing, we had to sit on the porch and say 10 things we were thankful for about our sibling.  Thinking of the obligatory gratitude principle that existed in my family really stirred up my mind this week about my own willingness to be grateful in my life now. 

I'm so quick to take things for granted.  This summer I really learned what it means to be thankful for good health when my mom was so ridiculously sick.  I would walk into her hospital room sometimes and immediately have to walk right back out because the emotion was too much to take.  I forgot, prior to this summer, that daily I should be thanking the Lord for my parents' health, for my family's health, for my own health.  The Lord has really blessed me.  I've never really had to want for much and I've always walked in a measure of favor that is completely undeserved.  As I was examining my life and blessings and journey, I realized that many more times than I had taken the time to say thank you, I had forgotten and received the blessing selfishly.  Shame on me.  I believe that if we ever want to see the Kingdom of God first hand on this side of Heaven, we've got to start with taking back our gratitude!

The word of God instructs us to do a few things in order to be in the will of God.  Let's face it... if you're a believer, you should have the desire to be in the will of God.  So this is what we have to do:

1. Be happy and glad-hearted continually. [check, who doesn't want to be happy?]
2. Be unceasing in prayer. [A little harder, definitely a convicting command]
3. Thank God in EVERYTHING. [Ah, I fail at this]

Friends, as believers, we have to do better.  We need to be encouraging one another to continually be thankful.  We should want everyone we come in contact with to know the goodness of the God that we serve and the God that loves people.  How can we show that goodness to the people who don't quite yet see it without first taking back our gratitude?

Every night growing up that my family got to [was forced to] eat dinner together, my dad used to pray the same rehearsed prayer.  This morning, one part of that prayer really hit me.  Dad used to say "...and Lord thank you for all that you've given us, and thank you even more for what you've withheld."

I've been spared from harm because the Lord protected me.  I've had near misses with other cars while driving because God protected me.  I've had encounters with dangerous people and places and come out unscathed because God protected me.  More than I've been safe, I've been unsafe, and because I'm surrounded by a hedge of protection by the God that loves me, I am safe.  So today, I'm taking back my gratitude.  Will you join me?

Thank you Father for your grace, love, provision, protection, belief in me, assignment of health and prosperity on myself and my family, all of the things you've given me and more importantly, everything you've withheld from me.  You're a GOOD God who's mercy and love never fail and for that I thank you.  I break every assignment of the Enemy that might try to convince me that my blessings are somehow earned without your assistance.  I take back the spirit of gratitude for myself, my family and my friends and I pray that we all start being more thankful in order to lead people to you.  Thank you for your newness daily that restores us, protects us and leads us.  In Jesus' name.