Beat Anxiety, Depression and Omicron

How do you beat anxiety, depression, coronavirus variants (omicron...really? come on!) and the negative news we get every day from the lamestream media?

The attitude of gratitude is a powerful pill against viruses of all kinds.

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is more than a one-time holiday during the year. Biblically, we’re to give thanks consistently to the Lord. One verse that I repeatedly come back to is Psalm 107:1. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His faithful love endures forever!” You cannot go very far in Scripture without being reminded of the importance of being appreciative. Being grateful is seeing things from a heavenly perspective. And as we approach the Christmas season, I want to encourage you to keep the heart of gratitude going strong into next year no matter how many variants or negative news viruses attack us next year.

During Thanksgiving, you likely gave thanks for what you have or what God has done for you throughout 2021. But today, I want to encourage you to give thanks for what God is doing right now that you may not be aware of. The ultimate form of faith is thanking God in advance for what you’re asking Him to do in the future. If you wait until after it happens, that’s not faith––that’s gratitude. While it is necessary and appropriate to thank God for what He has done, faith is thanking God in advance, trusting that He's working right now as you wait for the answer to your prayer.

Expect God To Move

In Romans 4:20-21 it says, “Yet Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.” Abraham thanked God before it happened!

Let me ask you, in the situation that you are in right now, what are you expecting God to do? We’re all in a situation of some kind. Some of us aren’t expecting God to do anything. The Bible says, “According to your faith let it be done for you” (Matthew 9:29). Maybe God gave you a dream and when you went after it, you experienced delays and difficulties. That's to be expected. But now you’re at a dead-end and you're discouraged. 

Keep The Faith

Your next step is to keep the faith … expect God to move because being grateful displays our trust in the Lord. He may have a different answer than the one you are expecting. Hebrews 11:39-40 tells us that, "...yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us... sometimes the answer we thought we needed does not come because God has something better in mind.

Remember what God can do because He can do ANYTHING (Ephesians 3:20). Rely on Scripture. Memorize it! Here is one I’ve spent a considerable amount of time meditating on, 
“… but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

With a grateful heart, make your requests known to God and you can have a peace like no other that He WILL move. It’s a peace that cannot be explained, only experienced once you’ve stepped into that faith.

I have some God-sized dreams when I think of the future of Skyline Church. What is your God-sized dream? Dream big! And when you hit that dead-end, keep the faith and expect God to move mountains.