Notes from this week's podcast: Preparing Your Heart to be Thankful

Regardless of our circumstances, the condition of your family, don't miss this thankful season. Let's prepare our hearts to truly be thankful. 

How do we become thankful? We've got to focus on the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts. 

Caution: Don't look to the world. It will be counterfeit. It will snatch a grateful heart. 

We can be thankful that God hasn't removed His breath from us. He hasn't given up on us. 

What do you do when the enemy tries to snatch your thankfulness? Come back and let the peace of Christ reign in your heart. Because we are one body, we are in Christ and we can be thankful. 

How do we get our hearts back where we have the peace of Christ ruling our hearts where we can truly be thankful? 

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your remembrance all the benefits you've received from God this year. 

2. Then, write them down. It's easy to be presumptuous and take for granted what God has done that we miss it. 

3. Out of faith, begin to read aloud scriptures of gratitude that define it. Put the Word of God on it. Why? Because it's the peace of Christ that we're after -- to rule in our hearts. 

* The enemy would want us to find peace by maneuvering the peace -- trying to manipulate the peace, to manufacture peace. 

God wants to bring the peace of Christ to our hearts -- that it rules our circumstances. 

4. Begin to speak it out loud. The Word of God must multiply in our hearts, in our homes, in our world, on our Thanksgiving Day. The Word is alive; it can bring peace, reconciliation, thankfulness in our hearts. 

5. Be in tune to your heart. The Word is what gives you hope, brings righteousness, what will make things right. And, it starts in the heart. It will start to bring a calmness. It will remove the spirit of competition. It will restore joy. Let it transform your mind, your emotions. 

6. Hang on to the truth. Your flesh is going to rise up. Why? Your flesh doesn't want to do this. 

(application) * Prepare your heart. * Stop. Simplify. Enjoy the moment. 

We want to present our hearts to Father God. We want our hearts to exemplify the peace of God and to show the thankfulness, the gratitude. 

* The key is for us to truly be thankful. And to do that we have to prepare our hearts. And to prepare our hearts, it takes the Word of God, anchoring ourselves to the Word of God so that the peace of Christ rules in our hearts. 

Scripture for further study: Colossians 3:15, Job 34:14-15, Acts 12:24, Psalm 19:14