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So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a
Hallelujah, hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve got nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing
Hallelujah, hallelujah
—Gratitude by Brandon Lake
In Pastor Aaron’s sermon yesterday, he talked about the brain science behind 6 major emotions that can keep us from hearing God: anger, fear, disgust, despair, sadness, and shame. When we come to God and we are overcome by a painful emotion due to an experience in our lives, it can interfere with hearing God. In order to remove this obstacle, we must reorient ourselves around joy and gratitude. To get our hearts and minds into a space to hear God and to help those hard emotions lose their power over us, we start our prayers with gratitude.*
As you read the following Psalms, note what the psalmist is grateful for.
Psalm 18
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. ...
25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 For it is you who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
29 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Reflect: Do any of the psalmist’s words bring to mind your own memory or similar experience of gratitude? As you think about a moment of gratitude in your life, take a moment to relive it and how it makes you feel. Do you feel peace? Joy? Awe? Wonder? What might God be communicating to you through the memory and the peace you feel?
Respond: If time allows, journal and pray about this memory of gratitude, expressing your gratitude to God.
*Adapted from The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation by Jim Wilder & Michel Hendricks