Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
-Psalm 95:2

I have a great deal to be thankful for. There is no doubt about it. I could quickly list several dozen very good reasons to be thankful.

But, let's face it, who wants to express gratitude when things aren't going well or the way we want them to? It is so hard to maintain a posture of gratitude during difficult times. We can intellectually understand it, but when the time comes to actually do it, we resist. Self pity and doubt are so much easier to entertain. Expressing gratitude takes work.

Well, one of the best ways to enter into a posture of gratitude is to start singing about how excellent God is. Oh, I know, it's the last thing we want to do when life is not so great. And, during those moments, we can't even picture ourselves doing it at all, much less with fervor and reverence. It's a square peg in a round hole. It is ludicrous.

It works, though. It doesn't take long either. One minute, like spoiled children, we are dwelling on despair and unmet expectations. The next, we are on our faces, overwhelmed by God's presence. Once there, we can't imagine what it would be like to be unthankful about anything. It seems so distant and impossible that we would even entertain the idea of complaining about the many blessings God has interwoven into our lives. We can't believe that we would ever not want to praise the God of the universe.

Extolling God is a decision that we make. Consider this: believers already know the truth. We know he is there; we know he loves us; we know his plan is perfect; we know he allows things to be difficult at times. So, if we know those things, and we still withhold our praise from him, well...isn't that kind of like what people do to each other when they are dissatisfied in their earthly relationships?

So we get mad at God and decide we are going to punish him by not acknowledging his sovereignty. We resolve to allow his calls go directly to voice mail. That will teach him. Now he will give us what we want. Of course, that never works; not in our relationship with God and not in our relationships with one another.

It is not easy sometimes, but I guarantee that singing to God will always bear good fruit. All we have to do is remember to try; that's it. You see, God can take even the smallest amount of genuine humility and turn it into a renewed fire for him that is blazing with purpose, promise and potency. And it takes humility to tell God he is the boss when we are unhappy in our circumstances. The hardest part is making that initial choice to let him have control.