Why an Attitude of Gratitude Will Elevate Your Altitude

was so focused on the joy in front of him that it gave him the ability to endure the difficulty that was going on in his life in the moment in this video hopefully your eyes are going to get open to one of the most powerful Concepts that you've ever learned in your life um it will it will unlock levels of access to experiences the likes of which you have had and the likes of which you've never had and so get zoned in as I share with you today on this Thanksgiving holiday that every day is

Thanksgiving and why an attitude of gratitude will elevate your altitude in 1 Thessalonians 5: 18 it says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you people say well how do you know the will of God here it is right here it I mean it tells you plain to say in everything which thing everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you now I'm going to ask you a question seems like it doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about but

I promise you it does did you ever go into somebody's house and their house has a smell not not an aroma a smell like an odor that's like like you walk in the door and it just like punches you in the face but the people who live there seem not to notice it's like how in the world can you not smell that no no no no no no no like you're thinking to yourself like you can't smell that and there's a phrase for it there's a phrase for it when you can't smell the odors that

you've become accustomed to does anybody know what it's called it's called nose blindness that's what it's called it's called nose blindness well I believe far too many people in fact most people probably 90% maybe even 99% of people have developed blessing blindness we have become so accustomed to being blessed that we take it for granted and don't even notice it and not only are we not grateful for the blessings not only are we not thankful for the blessings that we have we're actually unthankful for them we've become blessing blind because giving thanks is the result

of awareness if we read Psalm 68:19 here's what it says blessed be the Lord who daily Loth us with benefits even the god of our Salvation Salah blessed be the Lord like we would not walk around all day long talking about how bad of a day we having if we didn't suffer from blessing blindness we wouldn't walk around with our face so long we could throw it out the window and use it for a fire escape if we didn't have blessing blindness we wouldn't we wouldn't well I'm just having a terrible day what you're doing

is you're you're so zoned in on the unpleasant things of your day that you're missing all of the blessings in your day we've just it's there just too many there's too many do you realize I'm I'm not talking about I'm not okay let's say you're not rich let's say you're middle class in America let's say you're poor in America but you have running water and you have electricity and you have a refrigerator and you have a phone and you have a car and you have uh you you you have a you have as they as

they call it in some places a cook stove do you realize 500 years ago you would have needed 200 servants to provide for you anywhere near the level of service that you have just because of Technology but you know what we do instead of instead of being grateful for the fact that we have running water and we don't have to run down to the river to wash our clothes we got blessing blindness because we don't have to run down to the river or lower a bucket down in a well and then draw the water up

out of the well and then carry the water in the house so we can wash our hands and take a bath and heat up on because we don't do that stuff anymore we just we just we take it we take advantage of we I mean we take it for granted we act like it's owed to us yes we are so blessed that if we were just aware enough to count our blessings we wouldn't be walking around sour faac all the time we people people around us would make the mistake of thinking we're just like we're

just Mr positive thinking we're just Mis positive no we're not we're just Mr and Mis aware we're just waking up counting our blood when I think about the fact that everybody who went to bed last night did not wake up this morning and I did I was asleep do you I know y'all ain't going to believe this I can't walk when I sleep sleep can't talk when I sleep can't eat when I sleep I can't read when I sleep I can't drive while I sleep I've tried it a time or two it does not work

well um I can't drive while I sleep can't ride a bike while I'm asleep can't play golf while I'm asleep so if I can't do any of those things that are relatively easy while I'm asleep then you know I can't make myself wake up come on now the fact that God tapped you on your shoulder this morning and gave you life in your body to open your eyes if you don't get another blessing all day that's enough to walk around with so much cheese on your grill you could start a restaurant and we walk around

and we're we're irritated by this and frustrated by that and aggravated by the next thing because we're not counting our bless and you got up out of the bed this morning and you stood up and oh let's don't even talk about the fact you have legs you know everybody don't have legs everybody wasn't even born with legs everybody wasn't even born with arms so you got legs and you got arms and you got eyes and you got your face on upside down cuz you have not counted one single blessing on here it is it's it's

it's it's it's 9:47 a.m. and you ain't even started Counting yet what am I missing blessed be the Lord who daily Loth us with benefits your house wasn't destroyed in a flood last night wasn't knocked down by a hurricane or a tornado you didn't get struck by lightning on the way hey how about this for those of you who are at work or wherever you just happen to drive to and from do you realize there were hundreds of thousands of pounds of metal moving on the road around you in multiple directions all day and you

made it to your destination safely and you just think you're just going what blessing blindness I'm having a bad day you're having a bad day you didn't get killed in an accident maimed in an accident on your way here how are you having a bad day you have people that love you either friends or family or some somebody somewhere look hey I'm going to tell you something now if you ain't thinking nobody nowhere who loves you God loves you I love you you say but you don't know me that's okay that's not a requirement you're

made in the image of God that's enough for me see we we are so we're so confused because we get so used to all this good stuff all the time that we forget how good it is man I can remember I remember the 197 to flood in Pennsylvania I remember us being without electricity for days I remember the flood waters coming up over the bank down on Third Street then it came up a little bit higher and it came up a little bit higher and we're like what are we going to do my mom and

dad seven kids and we got I mean we got the we got the flood like as far from our front porch and our little bitty raggedy house as the other as the room in the other side of that building is the wall on the other side of our building is on the other side of this studio that's how close the water was to our house I remember my dad catching a carp carp now carp if you don't know what Carp Is it's like it's like the nastiest of the Clean Fish it's the most unclean of

the Clean Fish okay and I remember us eating of that carp for days I remember I I remember driving cars that we put together with parts we got from the junkyard and parts we got from the uto parts store we're so blessed I remember so many times God spared my life how can I possibly have a bad day a bad day what does that even mean oh it means I'm unaware of my blessings that's what it means I'm not saying everything that happens in your day is Pleasant that's not what I'm saying more good has

happened to you today than bad more good has happened to you in your life than bad and if you don't believe me here here's what I'm going to recommend you do here's this will give you some perspective go to a hospital to a c Children's Cancer a wward and go visit some of those families go to a children's hospital just go visit some of those kids and see how happy they are well I got to keep it moving giving thanks is the result of awareness but giving thanks is the requirement for Access what does that

mean Psalm 100:4 says enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name thankfulness is a requirement for access to God why because he's not in the habit of giving more stuff to the people who weren't thankful for the last stuff there's always a reason to be thankful I'm I'm just naturally sad no you're just naturally ungrateful you're just naturally unaware you're so busy counting your problems that you have not counted your blessings youve got so many blessings you've grown blessing blind like I well I'll

get to that in a minute it's a requirement for Access you want access to God be thankful he said if you come to me you come in here with some Thanksgiving in Your Heart by the way not just thanks feeling don't just feel thankful give thanks giving thanks is the road to answer prayer and achievement what does that mean Philippians 4 verse number six says be careful for nothing but let me let me give you let me give you two verses before that let me give you verse four and five verse four says rejoice in

the Lord all way and again I say rejoice I'm going to write it on the board so y'all don't miss this so the prefix re means to do again right Rejoice again have Rejoice I spelled that wrong joice Rejoice Rejoice again have joy in the lord always when always and then it says and again I say rejoice or and again I say again have joy rejoice in the Lord all way and again I say rejoice again have joy in the Lord when always and again I say again have joy what as a follower of Christ

as one who is Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb we are called to commanded to commanded to live in a state of Perpetual joyfulness there ain't a whole lot of room in there for frowning there Ain a lot of room in there for sadness there Ain all lot L of room in there for depression but my depression is real I know so is Joy I'm not saying that you don't have problems you can be joyful in the midst of problems the scripture says that when Jesus was on the cross looking under Jesus the author

and finish of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross what does that mean he was so focused on the joy in front of him that it gave him the ability to endure the difficulty that was going on in his life in the moment it's a matter of focus some but that's that's unrealistic it's unrealistic to be more aware of your blessings than it is your burdens maybe it's unrealistic to be more aware of your burdens than it is to be aware of your blessings maybe that's the real unrealistic

perspective cuz it says so he said again have joy the Lord all way and again again have joy in the lord always and again I say have joy okay well how do you do that that sounds that sounds nice and church ified but how do you do it the next verse tells us let your moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at hand what is moderation moderation is self-control so what you do is you use your moderation your self-control to remind yourself that the Lord is at hand well what does that do

well that's that's what gives you Joy why because in his presence is fullness of joy so when you're in the prison like Joseph but you're more aware of his presence than the prison you can have joy in the prison when you're building the ark for 120 years and everybody's making fun of you because you said water's going to fall from the sky even though nobody's ever seen water fall from the sky like Noah you're more aware of the presence of the Lord so you keep on working with a song in your heart and with joy

in your heart and a song in your song in your heart you say my what are you saying I'm saying I'm saying that when you're more aware of the presence of the Lord than you are the presence of the giant you run toward the giant with joy that everybody else is running from with fear when you're more aware of the presence of the Lord than you are the presence of the fire then you don't bow the knee to the world but you stand and say I'm not going to be careful how I answer you in

this matter I will not bow down because my God is able to deliver me and he will but if he doesn't I'm still more aware of his presence than I am the presence of your persecution see our problem is not that something's missing our problem is we are missing what's there so it says it says be careful for not so it says let your moderation be known un all men for the Lord's hand and then it says and be careful for nothing don't worry about anything why the Lord's at hand but I can't handle it

that's okay the Lord's at hand he can handle it so I'll just have joy watching him handle it oh oh he got this you never saw anybody tougher than me when my big brother was with me what you what you what you going to do rejoice and be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer supplication with Thanksgiving if you give thanks for what you already have and you give thanks for the fact that you have the opportunity to ask the god of the universe and that know and you know that he hears you and

you give thanks for the thing you ask for before you get the thing you ask for here's what happens next the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus finally Brethren what's whatever things are true I whatso yeah finally bre whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely if you're be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things so he's literally telling us the same thing all you have to do is think

about all the pure things that God has blessed you with all the just all the good that God has blessed you with if you just keep your mind on that you how you going to be anything but thankful and then it says then it says those things which you've both learned and received and heard and seen in me do more is caught than taught and the peace of God shall be with you I'm going to skip down to verse number 13 because everybody loves to read this and everybody loves to quote it but they missed

the prerequisites of the promise I can do all things through Christ with strength theth me but if you don't rejoice in the Lord all way if you're if you're not joyful and then you're not willful you're not willfully aware of the presence of the Lord and you're not prayerful be careful for nothing but everything by prayer and supplication and you're not thankful then you can't be peaceful the peace of God which passes all understanding if you're not mindful whatever things are pure whatever things are just whatever things are honest whatever things are lovely whatever things

are a good report if you're not mindful then you don't get to be power powerful if you didn't do Verses 4 through 12 you can't claim 13 I'm going to tell you something on this Thanksgiving day every day is Thanksgiving for those who are willing to Count Their Blessings and give thanks so for the rest of your life for the rest of my life for the rest of our lives let's make every day Thanksgiving Day Count Your Blessings watch them multiply hope this video blesses you on this Thanksgiving Day enjoy your family be grateful be

thankful and God will be pleased we'll see you on the next video