Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Power of Gratitude | Ep. 10 | Friday February 17, 2023

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

How do you learn anything? You practice. Today’s episode discusses teaching yourself how to accomplish great things by starting with the small, routine things. As you focus on the goodness of God, it’ll change the way you think. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to The Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a perfect way to point your day. Our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional and that you'll be equipped, empowered, and encouraged as a follower of Jesus to deepen your relationship with God. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit.ch slash daily drive. And now let's dive into today's devotional with one of our teaching pastors, Mike Bro. Hey, everybody. man, thanks for joining us today. My name is Mike Bro. Man, I hope you having a good week.

And I can't tell you how much of love hanging out with you every day just for a few minutes. And I'm just honored that you would even tune in for a few minutes. We have been talking since the beginning of the new year about walking a new way. And this particular week, we've been leaning into the importance of changing the way we think. We've been talking about downloading a new playlist into our mind

because great people, they think, great thoughts. So let me just give you our key verse for this week. It's been Romans chapter 12, verse 2, and it says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. Don't let the culture define what a great life looks like to you. Instead, let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. And we've talked about how God's part of the transformation, and the way we cooperate with him in the transformation, is by changing the way we think. And we've talked about how we might need to delete some unhealthy things,

and at the same time start downloading some things that are true, and noble and right and lovely and excellent and good into our minds. The last couple of days, we've talked about feed and focus, feed and focus, feed and focus. What you and I feed our minds is huge. And what has our focus, has our attention. What has our attention has us. So feed and focus. Feed and focus.

Today, I just want to share one of the practices that has helped me personally change my focus. Now, I know I'm going to share much more on this at a later day because it has been an absolute game changer for my life. But it's a little thing called gratitude. Those of you that might be working some recovery program, you know the power of practicing gratitude, making gratitude list. It's a key component to getting well. And the reason it's so effective is that it shifts your focus.

Instead of complaining, instead of comparing, instead of living with a sense of envy or entitlement, you're able to focus on just how you've been blessed. There's a guy named Paul that I've mentioned before. He wrote this from prison. He was unjustly incarcerated for his faith in Jesus Christ. And this blows me away every time I read it, thinking this guy wrote this from prison.

Philippians 4, verse 11 through 13, he says, I've learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live in almost nothing over 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. Man, I read that. I go, man, I want to be that content, don't you?

And there's something I picked up a few years ago in what he said. He said, I have learned how to be content, which made me think, how do you learn that? How do you learn anything, right? You practice. I mean, you want to get good at guitar? You practice. You want to get better at your free throw shooting? You practice. To learn anything you have to practice. And here's the deal. You learn contentment by practicing gratitude.

So let me tell you the way I do it. It's just me personally. I just need some structure in my life. When I pray and stuff, sometimes I'm all over the place. And that's okay. God can decipher it by the time it gets to heaven. But I need some structure. So what I've been doing for a couple of decades now, I work through the ABCs almost every day, if not every day. I'll lay in bed at night, lay in bed in the morning. I'll just work through the ABCs. And what I do the first time through, I just start with the letter A and go all the way through and this list attributes of God.

Like I may start with amazing, beautiful, caring, divine, eternal, father, good, holy, kind, loving. I mean, I'll work my way all the way through the alphabet. Then I go back through another time, the second time through, I just do things, things in life that just pop into my head. Sometimes they're tough things. You know, I may thank God for chemo, you know, just things that pop on my head, but I'll work through, you know, apples, I'll go, you know, bears, cattle, dogs. I'm in a livestock theme here, but, but you know what I'm talking about. Whatever pops on my at the time. I just, I thank him. I thank him for it. It's been a really healthy practice for me. Then I go through a third time. And a third time through, I do people. And I've had people

pop in my head that I haven't thought about in like 30, 40 years. I had people pop in my head that are, you know, maybe on the news, or maybe I met them in the lobby at church, or I met him in a checkout line at a grocery store. It's just so bizarre how those names will come to my mind and I'll and I'll just work through just being great. And that gratitude practice is not a practice where I ask God for anything. I'm just grateful for what he's done in my life. That has just done more to change my focus than just about any other practice that I do in my life. Let me tell you how this played out for me.

A few weeks ago, I got an infection in my foot. I didn't know what's going on in my foot. I was playing with my grandkids, playing little basketball. with them and I thought I pushed off in the wrong direction. It's kind of hurt my foot, so I thought that's messed my foot up. But it just, it would go away. It just got worse and worse and worse. And I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't hardly walk and I had to go to preach at the church in Mississippi. I got there. I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't sleep for two or three days. I didn't have any medication take. I took some Advil, but it just throbbing and it killed me.

I really couldn't put any weight on it at all. Sat on a stool to teach and took a flight back home. my flight was delayed for two and a half hour, so I missed my next flight, so my flight for the night was canceled. And I ended up in the Charlotte Airport. I'm that guy trying to get to the moving walkway because I couldn't walk. And I just riding along on that thing. And I'm thinking, man, they put me on a flight the first thing the next morning. I thought to myself, there's no way.

There's no way that I'm leaving the airport and getting an Uber and going to a hotel. My foot is killing me. I don't want to stand in line tomorrow morning. So if I can just find a place near my gate for the morning, just crash on a floor. That's what I'm going to do. and just make the best of it. So I get to the end of this walkway, and I look and I see pretty close to my gate for the morning a couch.

I mean, it's the only couch I've ever seen in this airport. So I hobbled to this couch as fast as I could, throw them backpacking my stuff on the couch to claim that couch for the night. And then I look up, and I think I could use some ice to put in the bag and put on my foot, and I see a Bojangles chicken place. It's closing down the food court. So I hovel over there, go, hey, I'm in a lot of pay. I'm wondering, four of you guys close down.

You do a way you could put some ice in a bag for me? And this young guy goes, hey, glad to, man. Puts a bunch of ice in the bag for me. So I go back to the couch. I take my backpack, set it up, prop my foot up on the backpack, pop a couple Advil, set the ice on my foot, take a sweatshirt out of my backpack, roll it up from my pillow, took a mask out of my bag that I had from my mouth, but I put it over my eyes. The lights in the airport wouldn't blow me as I slept all night.

I'm laying there on this couch thinking, this is the worst day of my life. And I felt the Holy Spirit go, come on, man, you're not shipwrecked like Paul. You're not in prison. Do your ABCs. So I'm laying there on the couch in the Charlotte Airport going, okay. Advil, Bojangles, chicken, Devante, the guy that gave me ice, escalator that got me upstairs. I'm thinking I still have a foot.

I work my way all the way through the outfit like that. And you know what? When I got done, I slept like a guy in a lot of pain in an airport. But it changed my attitude. It changed my focus. I tell you all that. They say, man, there's power and gratitude. It really does shift your focus.

So that's your homework assignment today. Spend some time, whether it's tonight or you get a break today. And just work through the ABCs. Even when you're driving, you can just work through the ABCs. You might be walking on a treadmill. Just work through the ABCs, things that you're grateful for. And just focus on the goodness of God. And as you do that, I'm telling you, it'll start to change the way you think.

See you next time. 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. For more information, visit lakepoint.comte.com slash daily drive.