Murmuring lips broadcasted what customers thought as they were told their checkout line was closing.

We might be provoked when any of these situations occur:

• You have to pick up after someone else
• Someone cut inline ahead of you
• The only checkout lines are the “self” checkouts
• You are called to serve on a day you thought would be free
• The line/traffic is moving way too slow
• A detour causes your commute to be even longer
• Your spouse is sick, and Christmas has to be cancelled
• A health issue has now changed the way you live your life

Certainly, tragedies cause immense pain and heartache. But more times than we are willing to admit, grumbling is the status quo of our existence. I decided to not even broach the topic of politics or the church.

I do not believe it too bold to state that a lack of gratitude is prevalent even amongst Christians!

With my Retreat of Refocusing and Refueling, I am reexamining prayer and my expectations of how God should answer said prayers. And so often, I can see, there is a lack of gratitude fueling an anxious, grumbling spirit for the answers He assigns. You see, much of the time, He does not deliver what I think He should but instead allows me (or someone else) to experience the hardship or the inconvenience.

Is it possible that God desires His followers to possess an exuberant gratitude in what they face in this world?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wrote:

Prayer is vital – but to fully experience [God’s] peace, we must come to Him with gratitude. Hard gratitude. Costly gratitude. The kind that trusts He is working for our good, even in unpleasant circumstances . . . the kind that garrisons our troubled hearts and minds with His peace.

As I mulled it over, I opened my Bible and read:

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28, NLT

Chosen by God and living out His purpose for me, I can know, I CAN KNOW, that whatever touches me here in this life, has been allowed by God and for a purpose. I am certainly invited, commanded, and even welcomed to pray about anything and everything, asking the Father to discontinue, even annihilate whatever the unpleasant circumstance may be, but at the same time, I relinquish my will to His. I must trust God! In any and every circumstance, I am to trust God. In this posture, a gratitude will grow that becomes an occupying force of peace for my heart and mind!

What unpleasant circumstances could use a charge of gratitude in your life?