How Giving Thanks Can Make All The Difference
By Drenda Keesee
Ever hear the saying “Laughter is the best medicine”?
Well, I think there should be a follow-up…
“Giving thanks once a day will keep the blues at bay.”
How often do you give thanks?
Do you ever notice that the longer you dwell on negative emotions, the more powerful they get?
Stop letting negative thoughts take up valuable real estate in your mind.
YOU CAN have control over your thoughts, and once you learn to master them, you have control over your circumstances!
I want to give you the tools that will help you develop an attitude of gratitude on a daily basis. Here are a few tips to get you started…
Identifying Negative Thoughts and People
Before we can hope to cast down negative thoughts, we have to learn to identify them.
That is so difficult in the culture, because in the culture, negativity, naysaying, and self-doubt is “normal.”
Remember, time is one of our most precious resources, so I want to encourage you to be careful who you spend it with…
The people you let speak into your life are likely what you will become.
Over the years, I have had to learn how to handle negative people, and it’s never easy. But if we don’t confront those people in our lives who are trying to speak against God’s plan, we are allowing them to slow us down.
When someone reacts negatively when you’re obedient to God and the priorities He has placed in your life, it isn’t a sign of your failure or unworthiness. It’s simply an indicator of immaturity in them.
You can’t make everyone happy, and that’s okay. God never asked you to!
You’re on a mission. You’re on assignment.
Kick the negativity to the curb. You can’t compromise your destiny to please the naysayers.
You can still love people and also realize that they don’t belong in your inner circle.
To learn more about dealing with difficult people, go HERE and watch my YouTube teaching, “Swimming with Sharks.”
Consistency Is Key
When we are trying to lose weight, do we succeed by eating healthy once in a while?
No! I wish that’s the way it worked though! LOL. Just like anything else, we thrive when we are consistent.
When you wait to go to God when things are going wrong, you are not really going to experience all He has for you.
God has so much to show you. He wants to love you and reveal wisdom to you through prayer, through fasting, and through meditating on His Word. That can’t happen if you just pop in once in a while.
Healthy faith is the result of daily conversation. When you start growing hungry for that, you will start to see real change in every aspect of your life.
Pray. Pray. Pray.
I was sad to read a study that says the number one word women chose to describe their lives was STRESSED.
If that’s how you’re feeling today, I want to encourage you to PRAY.
Prayer will change you, and then it will change things!
What that means is that prayer will change you, and then it will change your circumstances. It will leave you REFRESHED, MOTIVATED, and ready to CONQUER your dreams.
Put the power of prayer to work in your life, and cast your cares on God! You don’t need to be stressed… God’s grace is sufficient for you!
Happiness comes and goes, but joy built on trust in God lasts forever! No person, opinion, or earthly government is your answer. You have to find your identity in Christ, and that starts with prayer!
God FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made you, down to the number of hairs on your head and the shape of your body. You were designed with PURPOSE and on PURPOSE.
Go HERE for some amazing Bible verses on God’s love.
Go to God today and ask Him to impart wisdom into your heart. Ask Him to reveal your purpose and lead you to opportunities that will advance you in that purpose.
I know God has amazing things in store for you. In order to experience ALL, He has for you, carve out some consistent time to get into His Word and His presence, so the Holy Spirit can move in your circumstances.
I am here cheering for you every step of the way!
~ Drenda
Listen in Now to Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide, and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary, and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesee’s have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
