VOAA Ep 3_ Gratitude

The speaker reflects on the importance of gratitude and being thankful for what one has. They share their experience of attending a church service where they were asked to write down things they are grateful for in the year 2023. They also discuss a biblical passage about God's promise to give the Israelites land, but only when their population is sufficient to handle it. The speaker encourages listeners to have a gratitude jar or box where they can write down things they are grateful for on a regular basis. They emphasize the importance of having a thankful heart and embracing beautiful thinking. The speaker also discusses how complaining can hinder progress and encourages listeners to focus on God's plan for their lives rather than societal expectations. They highlight that the message of Christ is present in various religions and urge listeners to appreciate the significance of Jesus in their lives. I'm thankful for my family, I'm thankful for my friends, I'm thankful for the things I have that should never end. What are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? One thing I learned towards the end of last year, 2023, was, or is, when you think, you will thank. So, you have the things, if you have the things. And it has got me thinking deeply because it's been really sitting in the root of my mind, in the heart of my heart. I've been thinking and thanking. So, I did, last Sunday of 2023, the Celebration Church, and Pastor Latrie Irwin said, I give you two seconds to write what you're thankful for, for 2023. And I took my journal, my prayer journal, and I opened a new page and I wrote, 2023, gratitude. And I thought I would write just maybe one or two things, you know, and I wrote like 15, maybe more. And then I said it and I was like, wow. A lot has happened, but a lot happens that we take for granted. So, I ask you, what are you thankful for? What have you been through that you thought you wouldn't come out of what you did? What have you not been through that you wish you had or you had been through? What do you have or not have that you wish that you have or do not have? And are you thankful that you have what you have? Are you thankful that you don't have what you don't have? So, I learned to pray a certain prayer where I thank God for the things he's done, the things he will do, the things he's doing, and ultimately the things he didn't do. So, I thank him for what he allows and what he doesn't allow. If God opens our eyes to see the reasons he doesn't allow certain things or he didn't allow certain things to happen, we will fall on our face before him and say thank you. So, I was reading the book of Joshua today. And some part in chapter 2 where we have his despise, I saw the Bible referring me to a part in Exodus. Is it Exodus or Numbers? I'll check again. It did refer me to Exodus, it did refer me to Numbers, it did refer me to Deuteronomy. But that's the part that stuck out to me. It was Exodus 23. Start reading from 27 through 30. When God promised the Israelites that he would give them the land of Canaan, he would put in their hands the Hittites and the Hivites and the Canaanites. But he said he would not drive them away in one year. He would drive them in bits. So that the land would not become desolate and then overtaken by wild animals that would threaten the Israelites. He said he would drive them away in bits. And in verse 30 he said, I will give you the land. I'm paraphrasing now. I'll give you the land when your population is enough to take charge, to take over it. The message I got from there is, when it seems like it's not happening, it's preparation. In one of Pastor Balaji's whisperings, he said the waiting room is the room for preparation. So the waiting time is preparation time. So God told the Israelites, I'm going to give you Canaan. But hey, I'm not going to do that in the snap of a finger. I can, but I will not. Because the land will be desolate and then the wild animals will take over. And at the land I said I'm going to give you, watch, expect me to come and now do a snap of my finger and remove all the wild animals again. They will eat you up. Your population is not sufficient to fill this land that I will give you. That's the land of the Hittites, the land of the Canaanites and the land of the Hivites. So he said you will have it when your population is sufficient. Ah! That's something to be thankful for. That is eye opening. I read it just this night. So my prayer time is, I'm trying to schedule it between 7.30 and 8.30. But I'm just coming out of it to then put my recording together. And I'm in awe of God's care. It takes care of us that he's so mindful of the minutest detail. So he says, you people are a family of three. And I want to give you a seven bedroom apartment. But you will have four rooms desolate, empty. With nobody to fill it. So I won't give it to you now. I'll give it to you, but not now. I'll give it to you when you are a family of seven. Or a family of six. Or a family of five. That's a promise for prosperity. Because he's saying, I want you to take over the seven bedroom apartment. But you need to multiply to be able to take it over. So it means I'm going to work on you. I'm going to multiply you. I'm going to increase you. Before I give you that seven bedroom apartment. I'm going to increase you. I'm going to expand you. So I'm going to give you a contract of 100 million Naira. But as it stands, you have just two staff. She will not be able to handle it. So I'm going to expand you. I'm going to expand your capacity. And then I will give you that contract that I know you can handle. That's a promise for prosperity. So what are you thankful for? You should think about it. This is a question that should resonate in your heart every day. Every week. So I recently created. Someone bought a piggy bank for my son. The, what are they called? Ceramic ones. But it's openable at the bottom. It's a bowl. And he has another colour that's made of metal. But it's not openable. So we use that for his drops. So I recently carried it. Like I had this nudge in my spirit. Let's use that for a gratitude jar. A gratitude box. So I told my husband. Every week, let's write something we are grateful for. Individually, not together. Maybe I'm grateful for food. I'm grateful that my child was sick and he came out of it. I'm grateful that he took drugs and functioned in his body. I'm grateful that we started this year on a clean note. I'm grateful that we are able to put down payment for a house. I'm grateful, just whatever it is you are grateful for. Set good today. And I'm encouraging you. If you don't have a gratitude jar, please get one. Beyond your journal. So at the end of the year, like my husband asked me. So what do we do with it? At the end of the year, we will bring it out. And we will read through everything that God has done for us. So if we do this every week, it means at the end of the year, we are reading 52 things we are grateful for. Now, we are not confined to doing it only once a week. If maybe you go out today and you come back and you're like, wow. I witnessed a terrible accident that would have claimed my life. Put it in the box. I'm grateful that I came out of this accident on hand. I'm grateful that God spared me from this accident. It did not happen. Or say it happened, but I did not come out dead. I came out of it. So we are not confined to just once a week. And it's something I would say is very intentional. I intend to even do it daily. So that at the end of the year, we are reading 366. Because it's the new year. So we are reading 366 things that we are grateful to God for. So what are you grateful for? What are you thankful for? It's a question we should ask every day. Every time. As we move through 2024, move with the heart of gratitude. I've said that my theme for the year is in Nuya, beautiful thinking. And to keep beautiful thinking, I have to keep the heart of gratitude. I don't want to think about a messy situation. I've been in that state before. You make up things in your head. You literally write an entire movie script in your head and act it out. Only you. Monologue. Solo the quiet scene. Only you. One man actor. One man theater. So I'm embracing beautiful thinking. Filled with the heart of gratitude. So what are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for the gift of God. See, I've never been so in sync with my life that every day I get flashes of things that would have gone wrong. I get flashes of bills that I paid that I did not know how or where the money came from. I get flashes of, if I sit down to write my monthly expense, I find that it is beyond what I earn. And I'm like, I have just one job. I don't have a side hustle. How did I get this money? Where did the money come from? God says He will provide. And that is what, and He does not go back on His word. If He has said, I am Jehovah's children, Lord your provider, then He will provide. He will come for you. He will be present for you. He will be there before you ask. When you ask. After you ask. What are you thankful for? A complaining heart sees no progress. But a thankful heart gets everything. Because I know a lot of us, sometimes we are discouraged. Things are not going the way we want them to. Oh, I really should be doing my masters by now, but I'm not. I really should be married by now, but I'm not. I really should have had my first baby, but I'm not. How about you step on the brakes of complaints? And think. What is it that God wants me to do before I'm married? That being married will stop me from doing? Because while marriage is a beautiful thing, it is not what God's plan is for you. That is not God's ultimate plan for you. When God says go into the world and multiply, He is not saying go and have sex and have babies. He is saying preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. He is saying let the light of God radiate through you that everyone who sees you will know and appreciate your Father which is in heaven. He is saying, I care about you so much that I want you to know and I want you to tell the brethren in faith that I care about them. You see, when people celebrate Christmas, we tend to attribute it to Christians. But do you know that pagans celebrate Christmas? Islam, Buddhists, Deism, even idol worshippers celebrate Christmas. I mean, show me a religion, I dare say, show me a religion that does not make reference to Jesus. That does not make reference to God. That does not make reference to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, either individually or collectively. And I will denounce my Christian faith. Show me that religion that does not point its finger at Christ, the Messiah. So every other religion points to Christ but Christ points to himself. So every other person is talking about one person and that one person is talking about himself. Do you not think, are you not convinced that that is the way? I heard that message from Apostle Femi Lazarus and it got to me thinking, so what are you thankful for? If you, man, that is wicked, you can take care of your children. So in the wickedness of man, a father will be very wicked that he will choose not to pay a child's school fees. But God will sit there and he will say to you, my child, I will make a way. I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. He does not say, I will make a river in the desert. Only rivers. Rivers such that out of you shall flow rivers. Plural of living waters. Not just water. And not just waters. I dare say that Jesus is quite tempted in English. We all know that water does not have plural. But get that. Not just water or waters. He will make them living waters. So the water is alive. You go to the river bank, sometimes you see, you go to the river, it is not flowing. It is like living water. Sometimes you go to the river and it is just there. Or it is flowing. But it is just there. Dirty. Muddy. And God says he will make in you. That out of your belly, out of my belly. He did not even say belly. He said belly. So it is plural. If God can be this mindful of me, that is something to be thankful for. See, that you can eat food and your body can process it. The first time I had urinary tract infection, that is when I was healed. I gave testimony in church. Because that was the first time I was coming in contact with UTI. I did not even know what it was. I just knew that I am thankful to God that I can pee without pain. Maybe people in the congregation that I used to get had UTI. I did not know. God healed me from it. So it was something to be thankful for. If you have ever had urinary tract infection, you can know how painful it is to pee. Can you imagine how you pee every day, you take it for granted. Sometimes you do not pee on yourself. Imagine how it is to go to the toilet and poo. It is something to be grateful for. That is you can take in food made up of different compositions of things. Stuff that has come in contact with chemicals. Chemicals that are made up of different compounds. Stuff that are organic. You put them together. You make a meal out of it. You consume it. Your body accepts it. It strengthens. You transform it. It pushes out the waste. The waste comes out of your body. Just like that. With ease. Go and ask people who they pass pipe through. For them to be able to excrete. To pee. To pass urine. Let us not even go to number 2. You see that is something to be thankful for. And so father I am grateful. For every place that I have in my words and my thoughts and my actions. Expressing gratitude to you. To the awesomeness of your power. I apologize today. I confess them and I say that I am sorry. For the things you have done. For the things you have not done. For the things you are doing. For the things you will do. For the capacity you are expanding me into. For the things you allow to happen. For the things you do not allow to happen. I am grateful. I am grateful for water, for clothes, for shelter, for life and for life. I am grateful. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my son. I am grateful for my husband. I am grateful for my sister. I am grateful for my brother. I am grateful for my parents. That despite the degree of our sinful nature you care about us so much. You put clothes on our back. Food on our table. You brought us out of the mire clay and set our feet upon the stake. For you have made us light of the world. And you have set us high on the hilltop. That we should illuminate. I am grateful. I am grateful. I am thankful for joining Mercy. I am thankful for the gifts of going out and coming in. For breathing freely. That my brain can think and my mouth can speak the things which I want to express. That I can find the words. I can make fluid sentences. That my heart is beating at a rate which it is considered normal. That my blood pressure is neither high nor low. That my feet can walk to places where I want them to go. That my brain can think and send the message to parts of my body to move as expected. And they respond. I am grateful. I am grateful. That I take drugs and they function in my body but do not function again. I am grateful. For health and even in sickness. I am grateful. For I know that sickness teaches a lesson. And it is to enable me to embrace your glory. Embrace your wholesomeness. And to run back to you as my father because without you I am nothing. I am grateful that in my strength your weakness suffices. I am grateful that in my wisdom even your foolishness suffices. I am grateful that you guide my steps. I am grateful that you shield and protect me and my loved ones. I am grateful for my in-laws. I am grateful for what you have started in our lives. I am grateful for what you are doing. I am grateful for what you will do. In us, with us and through us. I am grateful that you will use us as an end time army. In this Joshua generation to lead your people to Canaan. The Lord in your mercy, in your infinite mercy. We will see you and acknowledge that you are God. That you alone are God. Thank you Abba Father. Thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you our Redeemer. I am grateful. For the words of my heart and the thoughts of my being. The thoughts of my heart and the words of my being. The actions of my being. I am grateful. Thank you Abba. Thank you Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. And so. This is where I draw my conscience. On gratitude today. I hope that you learn to pick something from this. Because if you open your heart to beautiful thinking. And you see. And you think. And you thank. And you appreciate. And you do not complain. Life should be enough easier. Less burdened. Less worrisome. Than currently. This is voice of an angel. I speak to you again soon.