Live Free with Josh Howerton - Killing Comparison-ism | Ep. 207 | Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Gratitude has the power to keep you from the comparison trap. Simply learning to name each of the gifts God has given us changes our whole outlook. Wouldn’t you want to be full of joy, peace and contentment? Allow God to change you by counting out all you already have in Him. 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.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up? This is the Daily Drive podcast, and I'm Mike Bro, and every day we spend a few minutes trying to get to know God a little better. So thanks for joining us from wherever you are. This Thanksgiving week, we're diving into the power of gratitude. And yesterday we talked about the futility of living in the comparison trap. How envy really is a green-eyed monser that wants to blind us to the goodness of God. And while a lack of gratitude leads to entitlement, resentment, cynicism, judgmentalism, and the rest, there's enormous power in. gratitude. It has the power to fill up your heart with goodness and change the way you see and do life like few things can. Let me just give you a very simple thing today that can help you

climb out of or keep you from falling into the comparison trap and start to fill your heart with a rather large amount of gratitude. Again, super simple, but here it is. Start counting. Like I said yesterday, we have a lot of little kids around our house and so cute listening to them, learn how to count, you know, one, two, seven, two, four, five, seven, three, you know, who knows those, traes, quadro. One of the first thing kids learn how to do is to count, right? In 1897, a songwriter named Jonathan Oatman wrote the words to a simple yet profound hymn.

It was originally written for young people to be singing like student ministry events to encourage them at a young age to live with gratitude. And the lyrics go something like this, when upon life's billows you were tempest-tossed. when you are discouraged thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. You know, if you're in a band, then you know counting matters.

When you're a musician and you stop counting, you are totally lost. In fact, if one person in the band stops counting, the whole band is affected and the song loses its rhythm and its focus and its harmony. And when you and I fail to count our blessings, our life loses the song. I'm learning that if you want to discover or rediscover the rhythms of grace and joy and peace and contentment, you've got to start counting the gifts that God has given you. I mean, literally count them, write them down, whatever comes to your mind. This is good things, you know, whatever pops in your head, sunsets, pepperoni, puppies,

putting your underwear on, straight out the dryer, whatever it is, just start counting and write them down. We have a little piece of needlepoint art in our kitchen that says contentment is not the achievement of all that we want. It's the realization of all that we already have. And man, we've been blessed, haven't we? This would be such a good week to incorporate counting into the regular rhythm of your day. I sat on the back deck

with my laptop the other day, and I simply started counting. I just got on a roll, writing whatever came to my mind, just random thoughts. And this is kind of an edited version. But I wrote, God thank you for my friends, my family, for this amazing sunrise and the way the fog hangs over the field behind her house,

for the beautiful horses in that field, for the vibrant color of changing leaves, God, you are quite the artist. Thanks for the song in my heart. Thanks for being a safe place to run when life gets hard. Thanks for the new fire pit, where we will burn hundreds of marshmallows making s'mores with grandkids and cousins.

Thanks for the joy all those kids bring me. Thanks for the way Debbie ignores the little things I do that have to drive her crazy. Thanks for the energy and the health that do manual labor like building a fire pit, and for Advil and bio. phrase after the manual labor. Thanks that I get to be a part of churches that are making a difference in this world. Thanks that I get to do this life, do this with my life. And I just thank you, God,

for your power, for your unexplainable peace, for the unforgettable gift of Jesus who by his death or resurrection is made this morning, just one of trillions for me. Just start counting. Just build that into the regular rhythm of your day. David writes in Psalm 103, praise the Lord, oh my soul. All my inmost being, praise His Holy Name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all of his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfy your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like Eagles. Now, you might not write as eloquently as David, but make your list, your list. Count up today, whatever comes to your mind, and see if gratitude doesn't lift you

to a much better place. So grateful for you, and I'll see you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for 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 Lake Point. Visit lakepoint. compt. Church slash daily drive.