Gregory Dickow - Gratitude, The Natural Path to Peace
Now let’s get right into today’s content. I want to talk about every breakthrough that you need in your life. Every breakthrough, every miracle, and every bit of happiness starts with this one thing. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7, «God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.» Every breakthrough starts with this power. Every miracle starts with this power. Every bit of happiness starts with this power. Once you discover this power that you have-God has given it to you: power, love, and a sound mind-you will experience the breakthroughs that you need.
Now we see this played out in a woman’s life who was a widow in 2 Kings chapter 4. With this widow, her husband had died, and the creditors were coming to take her sons as slaves for payment that her husband owed. She cried out to the prophet Elisha for help, and his response was legendary. She asked him for help, «What am I going to do? How am I going to pay these bills? How am I going to get out of debt? How am I going to have this breakthrough?» He responded to her with this question: «What do you want me to do for you? And what do you have in your house?»
I want you to see that the breakthrough started with these two questions that were asked: «What do you want me to do for you?» The prophet says to her, «What do you want me to do for you?» God is saying that to you right now: «What do you want me to do for you?» You know the Bible says that whatsoever things we desire when we pray, we can ask him and believe that we receive them the moment we ask. And the Bible says, «You have not because you ask not.» Think about what this prophet said to this woman: «What do you want me to do for you?»
There was a blind man named Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10, and he knew he was blind. Everybody else knew he was blind, but he kept crying out to Jesus. He heard about Jesus, and he heard Jesus was near, so he began to cry out, «Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!» The man kept crying out. The disciples tried to shut him down; they tried to silence him. The disciples told Jesus, «We don’t want to hear from this guy.» But Jesus heard from him and said, «Bring him to me.» They brought this blind man to Jesus, and Jesus said to him, «What do you want me to do for you?»
Now, it’s amazing that the man knew he was blind. The people around him knew he was blind. The disciples knew he was blind. Jesus knew he was blind. Yet, Jesus still asked him, «What do you want me to do for you?» You see, there’s a principle there: God needs to hear from you. God wants to hear from you. What do you want him to do? He knows what he would do, but you have to ask him what you want and what you desire. The power of desire, the power of hunger, the power of asking -there’s something very powerful about it. God wants you to be straightforward with him. «What do you want me to do?»
In other words, the blind man needed to express what his desire was, even though Jesus knew what it was. Sometimes we think, «Well, God knows what I need, so he’ll just take care of it.» We need to make our requests known to God because part of the process of asking God for what we want or need in life is that it delivers us from anxiety and worry. Part of the beauty of asking, the beauty of going to God, is that it gets our eyes off of ourselves and off of our situation and gets our eyes on God.
So, He said, «What do you want me to do for you?» And then, «What do you have in your house?» I want you to see how her breakthrough happened. The first key to what she wanted, the first key to what she needed — the miracle, the happiness — was a shift in thinking. When she shifted her thinking, you see, we’re so used to focusing on what we lack. We focus on what we don’t have. Her problem was all about what she didn’t have, but her solution was all about what she did have. Our solution begins when we shift our thinking to what we have, not what we don’t have.
It’s counterintuitive, and it goes against our natural reasoning. But our solution begins when we shift our thinking from what we don’t have to what we do have. This is the key: start with what you already have. Do an inventory. Take inventory of what you already have. God said, «I’ve not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.» When this lady needed a miracle — she needed a financial miracle-she didn’t have any money to pay off her debts. Her children were going to be taken as slaves to pay off her debt. The prophet asked her what she had in her house-what she desires. We need to be clear and express our desires to God.
Secondly, he said, «What do you have in your house?» Your miracle is found in something you already have, whether that be words or a seed you sow. Listen to what happened here. Too often, we fail to see what we already have in our lives, in our church, in our families. We look outside for some missing ingredient. Before we look too far, we need to open the cupboard and realize what’s already in it.
Now, as a pastor, it amazes me to see some of the single mothers in our church who raise their kids by themselves. They work a job; they’re living paycheck to paycheck. They serve in the church; they never complain. Somehow, they make something out of nothing. They take a little bread, a little peanut butter, eggs, and butter, and they make it feed a family for a week. It happens all the time. The miracle you need, the breakthrough you need, the provision you need is already in your house.
Now, our house is controlled by our thinking. If we drill down on this, we can really get a hold of this: the things that we don’t have are only a prayer away. They' re only a gratitude away. They' re only a thanksgiving away. First, we need to understand that the miracle, the happiness, the breakthrough that we need starts by shifting our thinking off of what we don’t have and onto what we do have. It’s what you have. We have to see this.
She couldn’t look to others. It’s not what others have; it’s what she had. We often say, «Boy, if I had that person’s job, if I had that person’s assets, if I had that person’s spouse, if I had that person’s money.» But Jesus tells us in John chapter 21, «As for you, follow me.» Don’t compare yourself to what somebody else has. We need to shift our thinking. Everything you’ve gone through is to prepare you for your future. God turns everything into something that prepares you for your future.
Here’s an example: several years ago, my wife and I sat with Walter Payton, one of the greatest athletes that ever lived, a legendary Chicago Bear, and he was dealing with cancer in his body. We went over because his wife asked us to come and pray for him. I looked around his house, and he had all these trophies and pictures of his Hall of Fame trophy, his Super Bowl, all the different accomplishments that he had-pictures of him all over the wall. It’s like a wall of fame, a Hall of Fame in his own house, a Super Bowl ring. I said to him, «Walter, all that you see around you-that’s not what made you great. All those things that are on your walls came from inside of you. The greatness is in you, and everything around you just proves that you’ve overcome every obstacle you’ve ever faced, and you’re ready to face this obstacle too.»
I think that’s true in all of our lives. We look, and we see. We have to remember how we got to where we are. Something inside of us-everybody has something in them. Everybody has a treasure inside of them. Everybody has greatness inside of them. Everybody has the grace of God available to them. It has the power to cancel out whatever problem is in your life, whatever is lacking in your life. This is really the key: when you shift your thinking from what you don’t have and start thanking God for what you do have, our mindsets are what guide and govern our lives.
So when we fill our minds with gratitude, when we begin to reflect on the things that God has done in our lives, you know, David says it in Psalm 103: «Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.» He began to list the benefits: «He pardons my iniquities; He heals all my diseases; He redeems my life from destruction; He crowns me with lovingkindness and compassion.» These are things that he already had.
What prevents us from being thankful is that we don’t take inventory of what we already have. We remain ignorant, or we forget what we have. We become victims. We feel sorry for ourselves. We begin to have self-pity because we’re not focused on the things we already have. Don’t get me wrong; we should be looking ahead-we should have vision for our future. But we can’t have vision for our future if we don’t have gratitude for our past. And by the way, that gratitude extends far beyond just the things that look good from your past. Your gratitude should include the things that look bad in your past.
We begin to thank God that even in those times, He was teaching us something. Even in those times, He was preparing us for something. Even in those times, He was doing something in our lives to make us ready for what He wanted us to experience. You see, what is really the real problem we have in our lives is bad eyesight. I don’t mean we can’t see right in front of us; I mean we can’t see behind us. We can’t see the good that has already occurred. We’re not focused on the things that God has already done for us.
Now think about this: in Romans chapter 1, it says that ingratitude and unthankfulness are what caused them to live in doubt and fear and to give themselves over to lifestyles that were contrary to God’s best for their lives. It was unthankfulness in Romans chapter 1:21, because thanks is the antidote. Thanks is the remedy to counteract the effects of the poison and disease of pride, unbelief, selfishness, doubt, and unhappiness. Thanks is the antidote. Gratitude is the antidote. It is a drug. It is a force, a spiritual and emotional force that will affect your physical condition and your spiritual environment, and it will affect everything around you. It will bring happiness to you. Gratitude will bring happiness; ingratitude will bring depression, sadness, and anxiety.
It’s not the other way around. We’re not unhappy because we have anxiety; anxiety comes from a lack of focus on what God has already done in our lives or a lack of prayer. I don’t mean a lack of the amount of prayer, but a lack of requesting God what we really want. Peace guards our hearts and minds, Philippians chapter 4 tells us when we go to God and make our requests known to Him with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. The peace of God -the peace of God is always on the heels of gratitude. The peace of God always follows an attitude of gratitude. Peace, calm, and steadiness begin to overflow and overtake your life when you begin to reflect on what you already have.
Now remember, in Luke chapter 17, there were 10 lepers. The Bible says that they cried out to Jesus to heal them. He said to them — they asked, «Have mercy on us, Son of David,» and he said to them, «Go and show yourselves to the priest.» Then the Bible says in verse 14, «As they went, they were cleansed from their leprosy.» But one of them, in verse 15, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God, thanking God with a loud voice, falling on his knees before God. Notice what it says: when one of them saw that he was healed, that means all of them were healed-every one of them was healed. But when he saw that he was healed, what he focused on was what just happened. He looked at his hands, and the leprosy stopped. He looked at his body, and the leprosy stopped. He felt around, and he felt, «Wow, this disease has stopped in my body.» He saw that he was healed. He saw, he saw, he saw.
This is what is stopping us. We’re not seeing what Jesus has already done. We’re not seeing what we already have. You already have probably so much more than 90% of the world’s population. But God blesses us to be a blessing. So, God does want us to have more so we can be more of a blessing-spiritually, more wisdom, more strength, more answers, more healing, more finances. God is not limited to anything, but He wants everything to be used. He wants to get it through us so He can get it to us. When you start focusing on what you already have, it creates gratitude. And gratitude is a drug. In fact, it’s a great drug — an opiate in one sense.
Now, this has been studied by science. This is research — the gratitude drug. What prevents us from being thankful is that we stop taking inventory. What prevents us from being thankful is that we see the bad things in our lives, and we focus on the bad. What prevents us from being thankful is a victim mentality. What prevents us from being thankful is that we’re not focused on what we already have; we’re focused on what we don’t have. And what makes us unthankful is giving anyone power to control our happiness. We’re waiting for other people to make us feel good-for other people to applaud us, for other people to like our posts, for other people to love us. We’re giving power over our happiness to them.
But the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health researched this for years and decades, and it showed that gratitude and thanksgiving actually act as opioids in the neurosensor of your brain. Now opioids are the most powerful painkillers, but they’re also the most addictive. They trigger rewards in the brain, and this is why we have to come to God and believe that He is and that He’s a rewarder of those who seek Him. There is a chemical released in our brains that brings great reward, happiness, and joy-not to mention the rewards of all the promises of God. All of God’s promises are meant to bless us, to make us happy, fortunate, and to be envied-happy imperfect people (HIPP), we talk about that.
The discovery of this opioid receptor was important because it suggested that opiate drugs work by mimicking the natural opiate-like molecules made in the brain. Scientists identified that these brain opioids, called endorphins, are actually what produces happiness in our lives. The chemicals derived from plants and the chemicals we take externally, whether it’s marijuana, nicotine, or opioids, hijack the pathways to the pleasure center of our brains. God intended for gratitude to create the neurotransmitters and the pathways that exist along that pleasure pathway of your brain.
There are great similarities between chemicals in nature — a receptor that is triggered by a chemical produced in the body is also triggered by a chemical produced in a plant. That’s why it’s a sign. Drugs are not meant for us to take and use to make us happy; they’re meant to show us that our brains are capable of joy. Our brains are capable of creating happiness when given the right ingredients. Gratitude is the ingredient. It’s a natural antidepressant; it’s a natural anti-anxiety.
Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, «Whatever we take to God, be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God.» The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When we take the time to ask for what we desire and when we take the time to be grateful for what we already have, this activates the neural circuits in our brains that produce dopamine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters travel along pathways in our brains and produce bliss and happiness. They are at the center of the brain, similar to the mechanisms of many antidepressants.
So practicing gratitude, as proven by science, can naturally create the same effects as medication and drugs that evoke feelings of contentment. But this doesn’t need to stop. A continual attitude of gratitude will produce these neurotransmitters that create happiness in our brains. We are wired by God to be happy. The more you stimulate these neural pathways through practicing gratitude, the stronger and more automatic they become.
If you think about it, when you’re forging a new path through the woods, the first trip is the most challenging, and you have to be deliberate. But the more times that path is traveled, the more defined the path becomes, and it becomes easier to follow. Your brain works in the same way. The more times a certain neural pathway is activated, the less effort it takes to stimulate that pathway next time, and it keeps happening easier and easier.
So, that’s why gratitude, once developed as a habit, speaking life once developed as a habit, speaking faith, speaking victory-once developed as a habit-it produces these neuro pathways of happiness and joy. This is why we have been given this opportunity to look back and reflect on the things that God has done for us. This is why when this man fell at Jesus' feet and gave him thanks, because he saw what had happened, Jesus said, «Your faith has made you well.»
So, real faith-let me explain to you, as we close out this podcast-real faith is not us mustering up enough energy and enough belief that God will do something in our lives. Real faith is being grateful for what you already have. When you see a cloudy day in front of you, when you’re seeing a fog in front of you, the thing that gets us-the compass, the North Star that gets us back in the right direction-is gratitude.
When you can’t see clearly what’s in front of you, stop and look behind and see the goodness and mercy that has been following you all the days of your life. That will make the path in front of you clearer and clearer. When it looks foggy, when you’re not sure, when it looks like life is dark, when it looks gloomy and cloudy-that’s not the time to keep looking into the darkness and into the clouds. It’s time to pause and look back, then begin to thank God for the things He’s already done in your life. That practice, once made a habit, will create a character of such peace and joy that nothing on the outside can sway you. Nothing that happens in this external world can sway you.
Jesus was in the middle of a storm, but he was sleeping in the back of the boat on a pillow. The disciples were freaking out, but he was sleeping. Why? Because he had created a habit of trusting God-a habit of knowing that His words mattered. When He said, «We’re going to the other side,» He could go to sleep knowing that they were going to the other side. The disciples could have as well, but instead, they worried. They were anxious, and they woke him up. He spoke to the wind to be still, but it would eventually become still just because He knew where He was going.
All the disciples needed to do was remember His words. Yes, He said, «We’re going to the other side.» Let’s think back to what He just did-all of these miracles He just performed. Why are we worried? Why are we nervous? We have the same power to be grateful, to practice gratitude. It shifts our attention away from looking at the problems we’re facing. We begin to look at what God has already done and what we already have. That is the secret to life. That is what releases and activates peace and joy in your life. So much so that you will never live defeated in your mindsets another day in your life.