It happens when you stop long enough to look back, to rehearse the mercies that have carried you to this moment, to count the blessings that have often been buried beneath the weight of what’s gone wrong. It is in this remembering that the good stuff rises to the surface, not because life has suddenly changed but because you have chosen to see again.
Gratitude is not passive. It is a deliberate choice—a turning of the heart toward heaven when it would be easier to fix your eyes on the ache, the lack, the disappointment. The human heart, so prone to forgetfulness, needs to be reminded of God’s faithfulness. David understood this when he said, “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me” (Psalm 103:2, NLT). Never forget. Never forget the moments He showed up. Never forget the doors He opened or the ones He gently closed to protect you. Never forget the whispers in the darkness, the provision in the wilderness, the peace that made no sense in the storm.
To forget is to lose sight of His goodness. To remember is to unlock joy.
Joy often feels elusive, like a bird that lands on your windowsill for just a moment before fluttering away. But joy, like gratitude, is not a feeling to be stumbled upon; it is a posture to be embraced. It crashes over the dam when you choose to engage with it. When you stop clinging to what’s missing and start declaring what is good, the tide shifts.
Can you feel it? That undercurrent of joy beginning to swell within you as you remember—as you name aloud the evidence of God’s kindness in your life? What you focus on grows. And when you focus on the faithfulness of God, joy cannot help but rise.
Perhaps you’ve been walking in circles, rehearsing the negative—the “not yets,” the “what ifs,” the “how longs.” You’ve given voice to your fears and given space to your doubts, and the more you’ve dwelled on the lack, the more it’s consumed you. But the good stuff begins when you shift your focus. Look closer. There’s more good in your life than you realize.
The breath in your lungs, the warmth of sunlight, the love of a friend, the laughter you almost missed. The way He woke you up this morning, His mercies brand new. The fact that, despite it all, you are here. Still standing. Still loved. Still held. If that’s not evidence of His goodness, what is?
Gratitude is the lens that allows you to see the fingerprints of God all over your life. It transforms the ordinary into holy ground, the mundane into a miracle. When you choose to see, you start to realize that you are not waiting for the good stuff to arrive; you are living in it.
Yes, there is more to come—more breakthrough, more fulfillment, more promises yet to unfold. But today is not void of blessing. Today is an answered prayer someone else is still praying for. Today, in all its imperfection, is still a gift. And the quickest way to access the joy you’ve been waiting for is to put on the garment of praise—to shift from lamenting what you don’t have to rejoicing in what you do.
“Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” (Isaiah 61:3).
Do you see the command there? To put on praise. Praise is not always spontaneous; it is often an act of discipline. It is you, standing in the middle of your struggle, saying, “I will praise You anyway.” It is choosing to rejoice before the provision comes, before the miracle unfolds, because you know who God is and you know what He’s already done.
The world would tell you to behave as a victim of your circumstances, to wallow in what hasn’t worked out, to stay stuck in what’s gone wrong. But God invites you to behave like the blessed person you already are. Engage your faith. Speak life. Choose joy. Wear your praise like a crown, declaring with confidence that God is good and His promises are true.
When you start living from this place, everything changes. Your circumstances may not shift immediately, but your heart does. Gratitude begins to push back the darkness. Joy starts to rise like the sun over the horizon, illuminating all that was hidden in the shadows. You begin to behave not as one who is empty but as one who is full—full of faith, full of hope, full of expectation for what God has yet to do.
And isn’t that the invitation of the Kingdom? To live with eyes wide open to the goodness of God, to see His hand at work in the past and trust it for the future?
So, let today be the day you remember. Rehearse the faithfulness of God. Name the blessings. Thank Him aloud. Write them down if you must—stack your stones of remembrance like the Israelites did as they crossed the Jordan so that when you look back, you will see. When your heart grows weary, let those stones be your testimony.
Put on the garment of praise. Greatly rejoice. Engage your faith. Live like the blessed person you already are. And as you do, you will discover this truth: joy is not found in the absence of problems but in the presence of God. It is here, in the remembering and rejoicing, that the good stuff begins—again and again and again.
Let the floodgates of joy open wide, and let your heart say:“The Lord h as done great things for me, and I am filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3).
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