Scripture Passage

Psalm 23

 

 

Sermon Text

As life is getting more difficult, more thankful we should be, because gratitude is the best weapon to fight against anxiety. Last week, we reflected that when life is difficult, consider, stop, and think. Yes, it is important to stop and think when life is difficult. But I want you to do one more thing. When life is difficult, that is, be thankful. When life is difficult, be thankful. It sounds funny, but trust me, it will do a lot of good to you. Practice your gratitude. When life is difficult, naturally and automatically, our heart looks for reasons to complain. We stand in front of two roads. One leads to complaint, and the other leads to gratitude. The road that leads to complaint will take us to a darker place, a place where death is. But the road that leads to gratitude will take us to a brighter place where there is life. Instead of taking the road to complaints, we should take the road to gratitude. You know, when everything goes well, people are thankful, but when things don’t go well, they complain. I want you to reverse this. When everything goes well, be joyful, and when things don’t go so well, be thankful. I think that is the secret of a happy life.

 Making Thankfulness a Habit

Find a notebook. Well, these days you can’t buy it, but when you look around you’ll be able to find used notebooks, or notebooks that you bought but never used. Find it, and start writing a gratitude journal. Make a habit of doing that in this difficult time. You can do that as soon as you wake up, or just before you go to bed. If you do that in the morning, as soon as you wake up, you start the day with gratitude. When you do that before you go to bed, you go to sleep with gratitude. If you want to do both, you can write it twice a day; once in the morning, and another time in the evening. Don’t write it generally. Be specific, about things, about people, about your experiences. Don’t repeat the same thing everyday. Be creative. Try to find something new every day to be thankful for. It may get harder as the days go on, but if you keep doing that, you will find new things to be thankful for. Instead of making a list, I want you to write sentences. Why, and what you’re thankful for. As you do this exercise every day, you will realize that, slowly, you are becoming free from worries and anxieties.

 God is Our Shepherd

Today’s psalm is a jewel of all the Psalms. It is the most beloved psalm. Read it twice a day until this self-isolation is finished. It can be therapeutic. Once in the morning, and once in the evening. You will become much brighter. David didn’t write this psalm when his life was going very well. He wrote this when his life was difficult. His enemies were around him, trying to destroy him. He was going through the darkest valley. His soul was filled with despair and fear, and he was very tired. In the midst of all this, he wrote this beautiful psalm. The whole psalm was summarized in the first verse. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) The rest of his psalm was an elaboration of this. Because the Lord was his shepherd, he did not need anything else. That was enough.

 St. Paul made a similar confession. “Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) That is the reason for us to be thankful. God is our shepherd. And God is with us, and he provides what we need.

 Overcoming Our Anxieties with Gratitude

We are all very tired. Parents with little children have to struggle with their children all day, and they still have to work from home. That is not easy. As Stephanie mentioned and shared beautifully, the single people are all by themselves, without any family members, that’s not easy either. There are also people who are financially difficult. They worry about their financial future. The longer this pandemic goes, the more anxious people become. Mentally and spiritually, we are very tired. What we need is rest, peace.

 David confessed. “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters.” (Psalm 23:2) God will restore our souls. When we are thankful, God will work within us. God will give us the power to overcome our anxiety. The more you think about negative things, the more anxious you become. But, when you are thankful, when you want to be thankful, you automatically look for things that are good, things that are positive. That is important, that is why being thankful is important.

 Having Hope for Eternal Life

The shadow of death hovers over us every day. I mean, we hear, every day, how many deaths we have in our city, in our province, in our country, and in the whole world. We never heard how many deaths we have everyday before, but we hear about death everyday now. We are threatened by death. God, we believe, is God who gives us life. Even though we walk through the shadow of death, God will be with us. Jesus showed us that there is life after death through his resurrection. Death cannot threaten us anymore. It cannot bind us. If we have no hope for the eternal life, death will sabotage us. We will not have true rest and peace. But now in Jesus, we feel the eternal peace. Let us thank God for giving us life, and life that is eternal.

Power of Being Thankful

One of our KSM elders is very sick right now, he’s struggling with his cancer, suffering quite a bit. I called him the other day, and all he said was, “Moksanim, thank you. I have nothing but to say thank you, to everyone around me, and the good life that I have lived.” I prayed for him on the phone, with gratitude, and it brought tears to my eyes. Being thankful is powerful. When we are thankful, we can overcome even our own death. Let us be thankful. Let us overcome our crisis with gratitude. God will bless us. Let us be thankful, all of us. Thank you.