Live Free with Josh Howerton - Growing through Slowing | Ep. 208 | Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

How much do we miss by going too fast? Slowing down allows us to see what otherwise we would miss: the good gifts God has for us. Giving space to appreciate His work is the only way we can consistently practice gratitude. How can you slow down today? For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Mike, and this Thanksgiving week we are focusing in on gratitude with the hopes that Thanksgiving will start to translate into thanks living, that you and I will develop a heart that, in the words of piglet from Wendy the Pooh, can hold a rather large amount of gratitude. We read this passage that Paul wrote from prison, and these are the last words you'd expect from an inmate who is unjustly incarcerated, but in Philippians 4, he writes this, I have learned how to be content. with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing over with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it's with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. You know, I learn, I love how Paul said, I have learned, I circled that in my Bible. I have learned. How do you learn anything?

You practice, right? I mean, how do you learn to play guitar? You practice. How do you learn to shoot free throws? You practice. How do you learn to become a gourmet chef? practice. How do you learn to hit a golf ball? You practice. You learn by practicing, and the same principle applies. You learn gratitude. You learn contentment by practicing gratitude. You learn

contentment by practicing gratitude. You all ever been on one of those glass bottom boats, maybe in Florida, or off the coast of Mexico or to Caribbean? You get a crowd of people surrounding the viewing area, excited about what they're going to see on the bottom of that boat. But as the boat pulls away from the harbor, people start moving away from the viewing area because there's really nothing to see. The faster the boat goes, it all becomes just a blur. Just below the surface gets lost in the darkness of the water. But then the captain pulls into a cove and he parks it next to like a coral reef and he shuts off the engine and everything gets really, really still. And the bottom of the boat turns into this magnificent world of beauty and it was just a few feet away just below

the surface the whole time. But it would never be visible if the boat just kept ripping through the water at a rapid pace. The only way to drink in the underwater wonder is to slow down and come to a complete stop. And gang, we are so good at skimming the surface, aren't we? We get going faster and faster and miss so much that it's right there just below the surface. So I'm trying to slow down and notice and reflect and count and practice gratitude every day. You know, all throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, you will see the nation of Israel stopping to stack up rocks as a place of remembrance for what God had just done. So through the years as a family might be traveling through the countryside, they might come upon this broken down pile of stones and a kid would ask,

hey, dad, hey, mom, what's that stack of rocks mean? And it gave that parent an opportunity to tell once again the story of God's goodness. And when you and I stop stacking stones, we stop telling the stories of God's goodness. Now, I'm not suggesting you build a stone altar, but maybe you could start like a gratitude scrapbook or write in a journal every day or, or or blog posts or capture moments of video or pictures on your phone. Why not teach your kids to practice gratitude by dedicating like an entire wall in your house where kids can just go every day and write down things on the wall that they're grateful for. So you want to learn contentment?

Practice gratitude. Slow down the day and start counting. And I'll see you back tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this

podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of LakePoint, visit lakepoint.comte.combe.combe.com slash daily drive.