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What are your thoughts saying to you today?  What did they tell you yesterday?

It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day with 80% being negative, and up to 95% of the thoughts threatening to be the exact same repetitive thoughts as the day before.

Ironically, I had a thought recently that seemed to put my mind in checkmate, and left me wondering if God was the sender, or if it was the enemy wanting to send me into the negative zone for the day?

While it jolted me, I knew it deserved an answer.

The question was –  Do you appreciate God………..or do you take him for granted

It challenged me to be honest with myself.

Naturally, I wanted to blurt out – of course, I don’t take God for granted but I couldn’t do that because it wasn’t 100% true.

I believe a lot of us really do appreciate Him on most days, and then also turn around and take Him for granted on other days.  I sat there wondering what I should say to my God knowing that there are days when I forge through life and He knows it.

The thought lingered on and it gently convicted me rather than condemn me.  I asked God to forgive me and sincerely asked for him to help me trust Him more.

With the state of our nation and our world, I can’t help but think of how God has been ignored -we as His created beings have been taking him for granted.  I think too often we forget we are in a spiritual battle with real foes.

In Psalm 3, we are reminded how David chose to pray when things looked pretty bleak.

Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
² Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”^[b]

³ But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
⁴ I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.

⁵ I lie down and sleep;
I wake again because the Lord sustains me.

God longs to have us call on Him in the midst of the battles of life.  He longs to shield us.  He longs to lift our heads when they hang low.

When He is the lifter of your head or my head – it is no longer our responsibility to keep it lifted, it is His.

When He lifts it – we don’t have to hustle to make things happen – we just have to obey.

When He lifts it – we don’t have to have it all together or we don’t have to know everything – we don’t have to depend on ourselves.  We can literally say things like this:  God I need your presence to help me get through this day.  I need patience.  I need hope.  I need____ – you fill in the blank.

I believe God could be saying to us as a nation:  I can’t lift an unbowed head – you need to bow.

Today, we have a chance to change some of the thoughts that will come our way by simply changing our speech using scripture.

God be a shield around me.  Lift my head from this heavy path I’m on.  Show me your Glory.  Allow me to see what you see in me.

Negative thoughts turn to positive thoughts if we put them on notice.

The next time we are jolted by a question that sounds similar to – Do you take God for granted?  May our answer continue to grow into a humble – No Sir, I don’t.

Friends, we are silently building an army of women who love the Lord and who are fighting back the darkness.

Sweet sister, you are in our army, and we need you to stand with us.

Let’s stand shoulder to shoulder

and let’s trust our creator

and let’s bow our heads knowing that he will lift them up in His time and in His way.

And then, let’s start talking to God with a loving voice filled with thankfulness.