There is much to be said for a grateful heart. When bad things happen, thanking God may be the last thing on our minds; however, learning how to thank and praise Him unleashes tremendous power in the spiritual realm. What many people may fail to understand is that we do not thank God for the situation, but in the midst of it; there is a difference. Giving Him our thanks and praise for the good things He has already done in our lives should not be a one-time event or an occasional afterthought, but a deliberate, continual lifestyle choice. God is waiting for us to be thankful so that He can perfect His plan and His purpose for our lives. Our thankfulness gets heaven’s attention. Praising and glorifying Him during our darkest times causes supernatural things to happen that we cannot take the credit for.

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We are in the midst of a spiritual battle against the devil, and we gain the upper hand when we learn to control our emotions. Satan tries to use negative emotions against us, but he is rendered powerless when we take authority in the emotional realm. Life is by no means perfect and bad things happen, but God has given us His Word on what to do when we are attacked by negative feelings. Rejoicing and giving God thanks and praise in the midst of a situation may seem strange at first to our intellectual understanding, but He has a good reason for this type of response. Using the Word as a weapon against depression when it tries to sweep us away gives us victory. Using the power of thanksgiving and gratitude is a major way we deal with all negative emotions. Thanking and praising God gives us victory over whatever ungodly feelings we may be experiencing at the moment.

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Being addicted to others’ opinions of us is extremely destructive. An excessive need for people to approve and validate us can cause guilt, shame, and insecurity in us. This kind of addiction leads us to seek others’ approval before we can value ourselves, and causes us to greatly fear rejection and disapproval from people who do not even care about us. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and mental health issues. Craving others’ acceptance and forgetting that God has already accepted us is tragic; realizing that He approves of us helps us break this addiction. Our mental outlook and self-respect immediately begin to improve when we decide that we like ourselves, regardless of what others think. We will not need the world’s validation when we know that we are already God’s beloved, and the apple of His eye.

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Addictions to anything are very dangerous and destructive. This includes being addicted to others’ approval. It is a huge mistake to determine our value and sense of self-worth by what other people think of us. The craving for others’ validation and the fear of rejection can destroy our mental health, cause us to focus on the wrong things, and actually derail God’s call on our lives. This kind of fear puts us in bondage to people. Living to please others, instead of God, steals our peace and our relationship with Him. By contrast, living for an audience of one—God—pleases Him, gives us eternal peace, and allows us to carry out His plan for us.

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Understanding how deeply God’s grace impacts our lives frees us from toiling in self-effort to please Him. In a world where most people work hard to earn God’s blessings, all we need to do is to accept and believe in His finished works. We have already been blessed and accepted as members of God’s royal family; this happens automatically when we get born again. He has given us undeserved gifts because we are—and always will be—His beloved children, regardless of what we do. The knowledge that we have been cleansed of all sin and made righteous in God’s eyes changes our motives from fear of punishment to a desire to do what pleases Him. This enables us to walk as God’s sons and daughters, which is now our true identity. Faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross enables us to continually bring our earthly walk closer in tune with God’s will for us.

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God has given each of us an assignment and placed a calling on our lives; to succeed in completing that assignment and fulfilling that calling, we must know who we are in Christ. Through his grace, God has done much for us to determine our identity. His grace has given us the opportunity to get born again; it has made us righteous, holy, wise, and perfect. Even when our earthly lives do not reflect this, this is the way God sees us. When we realize everything that He has done for us, we cannot help but want to serve and obey Him out of gratitude; an understanding of who we already are is the foundation of the worthy walk God has called us to. When we received His Son, God equipped us with everything we need for our Christian journey. Believing in His love for us allows Him to fulfill His plans for us.

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A life of grace focuses on what God has already done for us. We have been saved and delivered, and made righteous and holy; this is our stance in heaven and is independent of our behavior during our Christian walk. When we have accepted Christ, God sees us as faultless, regardless of our earthly state. He then appeals to us to live in harmony with our identity established in Him in light of what He did. The process of harmonizing our natural lives with what God has already declared requires the work of the Holy Spirit, who gradually changes us on the inside. The motivation behind our successful transformation is not fear of going to hell, but faith in God’s love for us. Reading the Bible through the lens of grace instead of through the lens of religion gives us a whole new understanding of God’s Word.

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Walking worthy of Christ is not something Christians need to strive to do through self-effort. This is impossible through our own merit; we can only do this through faith in Jesus and in His finished works. God chose us to be holy and blameless even before we were conceived; seeing ourselves the way He sees us gives us clarity as to who we really are. Our identity as members of God’s royal family was sealed when we got born again. Our journey through life, therefore, is not based on us trying to achieve righteousness, but on the truth that as God’s children, we are already righteous. Part of our walk involves extending the same grace and mercy we have received to others; we can do this because we know that we are no longer condemned and no longer need to condemn others in their walk. Genuine belief in what God has done for us out of love humbles us and enables us to walk in a manner worthy of our high calling.

To support the ministry financially, text "CDMPodcast" to 74483 or visit www.worldchangers.org.