God on the Go: Gratitude When You’re Sad

It’s easy to feel grateful in good times, but what about in hard times? This week we’re taking a look at David, who despite being persecuted and misunderstood, shared his gratitude to God. We can do this too! Seek God in both the good and hard times, share your gratitude with Him during both, and you will find so much joy in your life because your focus is on Him!

What’s New!

Monday Bible Story:

• David hiding in the cave and finding a way to give gratitude in the middle of something sad.

Tuesday Key Verse:

• Psalm 34: 1 – “I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise. I live and breathe God; if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy.”

Wednesday Prayer:

• Lord, even when there’s something sad going on, I want you to know that I am grateful for you, for your love, for the way you take care of me. Thank you for helping me when I feel sad, when I feel lonely, when I feel confused. I am grateful you are always here for me to talk to. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Thursday Question:

• What are two things that you don’t think should go together but do?

Friday Fun Fact:

• Q: How many caves are in Israel?
• A: Thousands!

 Special thanks to George Fox University for sponsoring the God on the Go Podcast!

Show Notes:

To get this week’s episode and daily text prompts, text the word Go to 89419. If you are in Canada, text GodOntheGo to 866-729-1065

Transcription:

Peanut butter and mustard, mashed potatoes and chocolate, strawberries and tuna fish, ice cream cake with kale sprinkled on top. What? Doesn’t all that sound delicious? Yeah, of course not. Peanut butter and mustard don’t go together, right? If the combos I just mentioned sound wrong together, you are right. There are things that go together and things that don’t seem to go together, but sometimes it’s a little more complicated than that.

I’m Julie Lyles Carr, and this is God on the Go, where we help you make the minutes matter. We’re talking over the next few episodes about gratitude. Gratitude is when you take the time to not just say thank you, although saying thank you is great, but when you really focus on appreciating something. To appreciate something is to really value it, to understand how important it is. So being grateful, having gratitude is when you pause, you see the value of something and what it means, and you’re thankful for it.

Having gratitude for something like getting a new puppy or your teacher giving you a better grade than you thought you would get, or your mom or dad showing up with a special treat, those things can be easy to have gratitude for. After all, those are things you hope would happen, and when they show up, it feels good. It’s exciting, but guess what? Gratitude isn’t just for the good times. Now, that might sound kind of confusing, but gratitude is also for hard times. For times when you feel sad. It doesn’t feel like gratitude and sad should go together, does it? Kind of sounds like peanut butter and mustard, instead of peanut butter and jelly.

There was a guy in the Bible named David and he had some very powerful enemies. His enemies wanted nothing more than to make life terrible for David. And it wasn’t fair at all because David had done a lot of good things to help some of these enemies. David’s enemies hunted him down all over the countryside. They spread rumors about him that weren’t fair. Things got so bad that David had to hide in a cave. Not just once, but twice. And each time, for a long time. David lived in the country of Israel. Now, Israel is about the same size as the state of New Jersey here in the United States, but check this out. In the state of New Jersey, there are about 100 caves. Israel? Israel has thousands and thousands of caves. These two places that are the same size, but one of them has thousands and thousands of caves. That’s Israel, where David lived. It makes sense that David would hide from his enemies in a cave since it would be almost impossible for his enemies to check all of the caves in Israel. But caves are wet and cold and a little scary and lonely. They’re dark, and you can imagine that hiding in a cave wasn’t the happiest place to be. Add to that, that David didn’t want to be enemies with the people who were chasing him. He had wanted to help them. It was a really sad time in David’s life because he was misunderstood. He was on the run and people he had thought were his friends, weren’t. So what did David do?

Well, he made kind of a peanut butter and mustard sandwich. While all this was going on, David wrote something we can still read today in the Bible in Psalm 34, he wrote, I bless God with every chance I get. My lungs expand with his praise. I live and breathe God. If things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy with all. That was sad that was going on in David’s life. He took the time to thank God, to bless God, to praise God, right in the middle of all that sad. And showing gratitude to God in this situation, helped David find his happy again.

Look, I know how hard it can be to be grateful right in the middle of something that’s making you sad. It’s probably not something that you even think about, being thankful when you’re unhappy. But what if simply being grateful that you have God to talk to, that you have God who sees you when you’re lonely, when you’re crying, when you’re feeling some complicated feelings… What if being grateful for God is something you try? You don’t have to ignore that you’re sad. You don’t have to act like everything is okay. Just tell God that you’re grateful for him, for his love, right in the middle of your sad. And sure, it may never feel like gratitude and sad can go together, but if you’ve ever had sour gummy bears say, or lemonade, sometimes the sweet and the sour can go together. So, mix your sad with gratitude for God and see what happens.

God on the Go is sponsored by George Fox University, where each student will be known personally, academically, and spiritually. I’ll see you next week.