Creflo Dollar - Overcoming Negative Emotions With Thanksgiving
I wanna talk to you about Overcoming Negative Emotions With Thanksgiving. A lot of times we don't address the issue that, you know, as human beings, we have emotions and sometimes during the holidays, those emotions need to be tamed. You don't let them get out of place, but we can overcome negative emotions with thanksgiving. We can overcome any attack as far as our emotions are concerned. Whether it's loneliness, whether it's depression, whether it's anger or strife, we can overcome those emotions with thanksgiving.
The Bible says in, its 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 18. He talks about that in everything, not for everything but in everything give thanks. Now look at this in the NLT, "In everything". Not for everything. So everything you're in, in life situations, in life circumstances learn how to be thankful, not for the thing that you're in, but be thankful for the promise that you have to come out of that. He says, "Be thankful in all circumstances". Whatever circle you're standing in, be thankful for it. Just figure it out, figure about how to be thankful. He says, "For this is the will of God for you who belong to Christ".
Now, I don't know how we ignore that part where he says the will of God is to be thankful in all circumstances. I think the more and more I begin to grow in this thing, I'm recognizing that it requires all those circumstances in our lives in order to grow in grace. But being thankful in all those circumstances, in a sense allows you to sustain yourself as you are growing in grace in that area. In other words, you become more gracious in the middle of circumstances, in the middle of things not working your way and or turning out the way you want them to turn out. Then what happens is if you can just figure out how to be thankful in the middle of the situation.
I remember something happened to me this past week where I really didn't want this thing to happen. But I said, "Well, oh, praise God". You know, and if you start practicing that, it'll become a habit. Oh well, let's just praise God for it, hallelujah, glory to God and just go for it and something happens. Your attitude is adjusted, but your emotions become subject to the way you respond in the middle of circumstances. Your emotions become subject to the way you respond in the middle of circumstances. And this is the will of God for you.
So why pray for the will of God in your life and you're not willing to just carry out this very simple thing where the will of God is concerned? The will of God for you it is to be thankful in all circumstances. Now, let's go to Philippians chapter 4 and 6 because I think one of the major ways to deal with negative emotions is through and with the power of thanksgiving and gratitude. Thanksgiving and gratitude, being gracious. Philippians 4:6 through 7 says, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer".
In everything, in everything by prayer. That's a big word. "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God". With Thanksgiving. Verse 7 says, "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ". So if we'll begin to function in this area of thanksgiving, the promise is peace and that's exactly what happens, peace. There's a peace that will come over you as you maintain an attitude of gratitude and you maintain an attitude of thanksgiving.
Please remember when you complain, you remain. When you complain, the situation remains. When you complain, how you have... the bad feelings and the bad emotions remain. When you complain, you remain. In fact, say that out loud. When you complain, you remain. You remain in that same situation. Look at Colossians 3:16 through through 17, I can slow up a little bit. I'm trying to meet my time limit. You know, when I say something's gonna last an hour, I remember getting up one of the, I think it was a Christmas and all the time was up and I had five minutes and I said, "God bless you, Merry Christmas, you're dismissed". They said, "What's the thing"? I said, "I promised you an hour".
So I need to shut up and get on with this. All right, Colossians 3:16,17, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus". And he said, "Give thanks to God and the Father by him". There it is again, in every circumstances in life, the will of God, in life, the will of God is that we can begin to cultivate an attitude of thanksgiving regardless of the circle that we stand in. I think the objective here is to achieve something called contentment.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 and 6. To achieve something called contentment. And I believe that when you are content, there's a lot of things that God can do because sometimes it takes some time to get some stuff to come through, some prayers to come through, some breakthroughs to come through. It might not happen right then but what you don't want to do is build up walls to begin to block those things up because we don't learn contentment, okay? So in 1 Timothy 6 and 6, he said, "But godliness," but he said, "With contentment is great gain".
You'll see great gain when that contentment is there with your godly living. I believe a part of contentment is an ease of mind and I think that's what has to happen, especially in the time we're living in. We're just flooded with information. We're in an information age and we just got all kinds of information coming our way and it would just probably be pretty cool if you just eat today, watch football and leave the news alone, okay? You're flooded with information. Who did this, who did that. Oh, we got the latest on that shooting. Oh, we got the latest on that war. We got the latest on that. Let's just chill on that and let's have an ease of mind. And that's what this is all about.
Thanksgiving brings contentment. Thanksgiving will bring contentment. You can try this today. You have a day where we're celebrating. We're celebrating the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything. Most of the country is celebrating, you know, when the pilgrims came in and did all that stuff. I can tell you some real historical facts about that, but I ain't got time, okay? But one of the things that we're celebrating is what we... this is our life. This day that the rest of the country is celebrating is our life. It's what we do every day. We're not just thanking God for the stuff we're thanking God and that's what happens sometimes.
Some people are thankful for the gift, but they're not thankful for the giver of the gift. We are thankful for the giver of the gift because if it wasn't for God, honey. I mean, think about it, you're thanking him for the blessing. No, no, no, I'm thanking him. I'm just not thankful for the blessing, I'm thankful for him giving me the blessing. Don't forget the hand that feeds you, amen. You can be thankful for the food and then forget all about the one who provided for you, praise God. And that's the thing that we wanna make sure that we come to do.
Now it was interesting here when we talk about thanksgiving bringing contentment. This was written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy while he was in prison. And in 1 Timothy, he was writing this, "Godliness with contentment is great gain". He was writing this while he was in prison that really ministered to me because he's in a circle. He's in a situation and he is still saying, "Be thankful, give thanks and then make sure that when you do that, that godliness that way of operation is gonna bring contentment in your life and that's gonna produce great gain". It doesn't feel good sometimes and it's something that's very interesting, but if you'll do it, it will bring great gain.
So with my daily family, I shared this and I wanna share this with you this morning. Again, there are three ways to practice an attitude of thanksgiving in your everyday life. Three ways to practice an attitude of thanksgiving in your everyday life. Number one, thank and praise God for everything in your life. Hebrews chapter 13 and 15, thank and praise God for everything in your life. Now, we're talking about practicing an attitude of thanksgiving. You want this to eventually become automatic. Hebrews 13:15 says, "By him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise". So that means if it's a sacrifice of praise, it's not gonna be, all the conditions may not be comfortable or all the conditions may not be pleasing, but he says, do it anyway. "Sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips". Open your mouth and give thanks to his name.
Now you might not be doing cartwheels and you may sometimes even be in pain. "Oh Father, thank you I'm healed". Open your mouth and give him praise. In other words, thank and praise God for everything in your life. Begin to look at things in your life. Start your day off. I start my day off with, "Thank you Lord for letting me sleep last night. Thank you for waking me up this morning, hallelujah". And then I just go down the list, "Father, thank you Lord, that I'm healed from the crown of my head to the soul of my feet".
And then I start thanking God for my wife. Start thanking for praying for my family to start praying for my church family. Start praying for situations that I know about and then spend time praying in tongues and believing that what I don't know to pray for by praying in tongues is taking care of that. And I tell you when you pray in tongues, you pray about things you don't even know about praise the Lord. And that's giving thanks to God continually. And this is what I believe. If we practice this, we'll see this in our everyday life.
Here's a second way to produce an attitude of thankfulness in everyday lives, don't allow yourselves to complain about anything. In other words, watch your mouth. And that's a life pursuit. That's a going down the path with the Holy Spirit asking him to help you to not complain. I mean, you know, you can have a good week of complaining and then there's one day you just let it all rip. You just make up for every day you did complain, amen. And so you just gotta watch your mouth because you know, you don't want to allow yourself to complain, why? Because the circumstance, the circle doesn't change if you complain, you're still in that circle.
You can complain all day long but you're not getting out of that circle until you first of all address that issue of complaining in your life. Don't let today be an opportunity for you to complain. So if you get at the table and well, I really didn't want that. Just eat it anyway, okay. Just stop it. Well, I wanted a little lemon pie versus a potato pie. Eat the doggone lemon pie and be thankful, you know, before somebody pulls up this old thing, "Well, you know, people in Africa ain't got nothing to eat". And somebody say, "Well, I don't live in Africa". You know, we need to just... don't look for opportunities to complain. And then the third area here, if we want to maintain an attitude of thanksgiving in our everyday life, don't compare yourself with others.
Number three, don't compare yourself with others. Don't get to the place where you wish that your life was different. Don't look at other people and say, I wish my life was different. Oh, I wish my life was that. No, no, no, no, no, no. You learn how to be very grateful and thankful for who you are and the life you have and quit looking at somebody else because it may look like you want to of their life. But you're not really in the inter intimate areas of life. You don't know what they're going through. You have no idea. In fact, with most people and you look at them and say, "Oh, I wish I had their life".
When you really get to know them, you're like, "Man, I am really grateful for the life I have". You thought the grass was greener in somebody else's shoes and you found out that you're doing all right. And you just got to get to the point right now. First of all, I'm not gonna compare myself with anybody. I'm not gonna compare myself with anybody. Just stop it, stop it. I think that's the danger of social media. Just always trying to compare yourself with somebody else. Oh you wish you were this great athlete. You wish you were this great actor. You wish you were this great rapper and you don't even understand the sad moments that these people have to deal with.
I counseled a lot of those people in times past and I tell you the saddest thing I've ever seen but on stage and on television and at the award show, "Oh, it's just, oh I wish I was them". And then you really get to know and get an inside peek of what's going on and you think, "Oh wow, I really like my little average life here in Collie Park, Georgia". Don't compare yourself and that will help you not to complain. Don't wish that you, your life was different. Get that, "I wish my life was different".
You have no idea how good you got it. And I'm serious, some folks especially, you know, like the generation, the younger generation right now, the kids right now, I just, I seriously freak out over, you know, sometimes my kids, my grandkids, I think what is wrong with your head? It's like the stuff that we would just appreciate so much. They just like, mm. I'm like, child, uh-uh, I ain't doing that. You just get your little unappreciative butt on around here and I will enjoy all of this by myself. You are not gonna hurt my feelings, amen. It is so important. Don't ever wish you had somebody else's life.
I feel that's the Spirit of God. Somebody need to hear that. Don't you dare wish that. I am so glad that I am everything God made me. I am so glad that I am everything God made me. Now it's not always been like that but I am so glad. I used to get, "I'm almost mad at my mom and dad". I was like, "Why couldn't y'all be taller"? But I'm glad I'm comfortable in cars and my legs don't require a lot of space to do what needs to be done. I don't wish to be nobody but who God made me to be. That's the attitude you have to have, okay.
So let's look at real quickly some benefits of thankful and grateful attitude. The benefits of thankfulness and gratitude. I'm just gonna go through it real quick. It'll reduce depression. I want you to understand this is a great pill to take. It'll reduce depression, it'll get promotion at work. There is something that causes people to gravitate towards you when they just keep meeting somebody with a thankful attitude and have an attitude of gratitude. Please understand something, people hire who they like. I ain't gonna hire nobody I don't like. I don't care how skillful you are.
"Oh, well, I'm skillful and I graduated from Harvard and I got three degrees". Yeah, you got everything going for you except one thing: I don't like you and I don't wanna work with you and see you every day. But being thankful and having a great... you don't wanna be around anybody that's critical and envious and just complain about everything and just a little picky about stuff. You don't wanna do that, okay. Number three, thanksgiving and having an attitude of gratitude will improve our self esteem. It'll improve what you think about yourself.
Number four, it will increase our energy. Do you know when you're thankful and have an attitude of gratitude you have better energy? Have you ever been around just negative people and that negative energy was around them and you try to let them know, you know, we need to change the energy in this room? Now, we just need to put them out. The energy will take care of itself.
All right, if you have a thankful heart and a heart of gratitude, you'll even develop a strong immune system because you don't have all of the things going on in your body. All the stress go. It can be stressful to walk around complaining, having a negative attitude. It could be very, very stressful and that will affect your immune system. And it can really add to a great and a strong immune system. It'll decrease blood pressure. I guarantee you, I can take your blood pressure right now and I just have you to complain for about 15 minutes, take your blood pressure and you'll see, boy, it got high.
And then I could just say just thank God and be grateful and sing your best Christian song and pray in the Holy Ghost and that sucker drops back down. I think people just don't understand that when God asks us to do these things, it's for a purpose. He is the most purposeful person, the most purposeful being in the world and he has a purpose when he tells you to do something. It will increase sleep quality. Go to bed thankful instead of going to bed worried. Go to bed thankful. It'll reduce and cope with negative stress. It'll reduce negative emotions such as envy, anger and hatred, just being thankful, just being grateful. You become more likable, just being grateful and thankful.
Taffi and I had an opportunity. A friend of ours we hadn't seen in a while. He's accomplished a whole lot of stuff. I mean, he's an amazing person and he's the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the country and we just spend a couple of hours with him just being grateful and thankful for how God's using him and what he's doing and yada, yada, yada and I tell you what man it causes you to be likable. I mean, he was almost like he was waiting until the sun was gonna come up so he can send me another text about how much he enjoyed that day.
And all we did was just, you know, had a great attitude about our God around him and we got ready to leave and gave him a big old hug and blessed him in the name of Jesus and told him how proud we are and stuff like that and how thankful we are to God for him. That really makes you likable. So if you sense that you're not very likable, I mean, ask your mama'nem, they'll tell you the truth. "Mama why do you think people don't like me"? "Baby, I don't even like you. And I'll tell you why because your attitude is so bad". Increased feelings and happiness and well being comes when you're thankful. Increased productivity comes when you are thankful.
Let me close with these three scriptures here. I think you'll be blessed with this. Look at Colossians 3:15, Colossians 3:15. In the King James it says, "By him", he says, "And let the peace of God rule in your heart, to the which also ye called in one body;" and what, "And be thankful". The only way the peace of God is gonna rule in your heart is when you make a decision to be thankful. I'm gonna be thankful and then the peace of God will rule in my heart.
Look at Psalms 100 verse 4. Psalms 100 and verse 4. Here's what he says. He says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and enter into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name". That's how you ought to come to church. Nobody should have to work real hard to get you to start feeling good enough to participate in the church service. Honey, you ought to come in with thanksgiving. You ought to come in so hot with thanksgiving and praise that you begin to affect the people you encounter. Somebody asks you, "How you doing"? You say, "If I did any better than what I'm doing right now, I'd have to slap myself".
You know, that's the kind of attitude that really, really makes a difference and it really blesses people when they encounter it. And then finally, Psalms 106 and verse 1, Psalms 106 and verse 1. I encourage you to take what you're hearing today and put it into practice immediately. He says in verse 1, "Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord". Watch this, "For he is good". O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good.
How many of you believe that God is good? Please understand any goodness that you've experienced in your life and any goodness that has happened to you in your past, your present it's because of God. It's because of him and you need to believe to see that goodness. But when the goodness of the Lord is being demonstrated in your life, give thanks to God, praise him for his goodness and... it ain't the devil doing no good for you.
"Well, how you know it wasn't Satan". Because Satan ain't interested in doing you no good. He wants to kill, steal and destroy, but God wants to do you good and make you happy. And so what we need to do is I'm gonna praise God for his goodness. Just have a flashback and take an accounting of the goodness of the Lord that's taken place in your life. Should have, could have certain things would have happened but the goodness of the Lord didn't let it happen. Certain things would have never opened up for you, but it opened up for you because of the goodness of the Lord.
So praise him, praise him and give thanks to him and give glory to him for the goodness that God has allowed to come in your life. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Let's live our lives today overcoming negative emotions by giving God thanks for all that he has done in Jesus name. Did you get anything out of that? Praise the Lord.