Giving thanks is really good spiritual exercise that will build our spiritual muscles and help us to be strong. (Please remember that there is a difference between praising God and thanking God. We praise the Lord because of who God is; we thank the Lord because of what God has done.)

When we thank God it builds the memories of how the Lord has already blessed us. As we thank God more and more, we realize more and more that we are surrounded by blessings. Even though our struggles and problems are real, our trauma was real, and our pain is real, God is more real. Our blessings are real. Our deliverance and healing, though perhaps not yet fully seen, are also real. So we thank the good Lord. That gives us real strength for the real trials which we face, and that will one day lead to real rest.

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