Midnight Miracles: Learn How A Thankful Heart Can Help You Through Difficult Times

Podcast

Nov 5

Are you facing something hard right now? Does it feel as if you’re lost in the “valley of the shadow of death?” There are times that life plain sucks, and what we are going through feels like it will overtake us. We know God is with us in all situations, but can we be honest? Knowing that He’s with us and feeling His presence are two completely different things.

If you were raised in church, like I was, you grew up knowing that God loves you – and it’s true. He is over the moon (which He created) in love with you! However, realizing that love and feeling that love, especially when you’re in a crisis, is sometimes difficult.

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The Power of Praise

One of my favorite events to read about in the Bible is the miracle that occurred to Paul and Silas at a very dark time in their lives – literally, at midnight! They had been beaten and put in prison, yet they didn’t start singing the Blues – they actually did the opposite. They began praising God!

That seems like a miracle right there, but then something happened. The atmosphere in the spirit realm changed when they started to worship. It began in their hearts and then transformed their minds. Next, it strengthened their bruised bodies and began to fill every part of that prison cell – so much so that their chains fell off!

Thanksgiving is Your Key To Victory

Thanksgiving is your key to victory when life gives you blow after blow. Paul and Silas didn’t seem to have a reason to praise God. They could have felt forsaken by God – like He didn’t care that they had been preaching and spreading the gospel. But they didn’t let those thoughts that probably tried to attack their thinking (in the middle of the night) have a place. They quieted those thoughts by praising God instead.

Guard Your Mind

The devil likes to attack our thought life. If he can get you to start thinking about what is wrong, it will eventually move to speaking about your problems – murmuring and complaining. What an easy trap to fall into! But when we know his tactics, we know how to defeat him.

Paul encourages us in Philippians 4:6-7 to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Paul isn’t just spouting off some remedy that he heard. He experienced this in prison after being whipped and beaten. I would guess that Paul suffered more than all of us combined! I mean, I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been stoned to death, whipped, or stranded at sea, have you? Therefore, I think he knows what he’s talking about. Paul was very skilled at looking to the answer, not the problem. He kept his eyes on his shepherd to lead him through the numerous valleys he found himself in. (Ps. 23)

Thanksgiving is more than a day of eating and being grateful for our many blessings. It’s a powerful tool to enter God’s peace that passes our understanding. Start practicing Thanksgiving in the middle of your dark times – your midnight hour, and watch the miracles occur when you allow God on the scene!