Tag: gratitude

Finding joy in difficult seasons through abiding in Jesus

Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Through Jesus

Written by Havana Sonday on June 30, 2026. Posted in Resources, Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Through Jesus

Life doesn’t always unfold the way we hope, but God offers a joy that is deeper than our circumstances. This week’s message explored how finding joy in difficult seasons isn’t about trying harder to be happy—it’s about staying connected to Jesus, who grows lasting joy in us through every season of life.

This Week’s Sermon: Stubborn Joy

Key Takeaways

Joy is different from happiness because it is rooted in God’s presence rather than changing circumstances.
The fruit of the Spirit grows naturally as we remain connected to Jesus.
God’s promises help us hold onto truth when our emotions tell a different story.
Gratitude helps us notice God’s presence and creates fertile soil for joy to grow.
Jesus offers a joy that can endure even life’s deepest losses because our hope is rooted in His resurrection.

Sermon Highlights: Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons

It’s easy to believe joy belongs only to life’s best moments—a long-awaited answer to prayer, a celebration with family, or a season when everything finally seems to be going right. But what happens when life feels uncertain? What happens when grief lingers, disappointment settles in, or circumstances refuse to change?

Many of us know what it’s like to wonder whether joy is even possible during difficult seasons. This week’s teaching reminded us that finding joy in difficult seasons isn’t about pretending everything is okay. Instead, it’s about discovering a deeper kind of joy that God grows within us as we remain connected to Jesus.

Big Idea of This Week’s Teaching

Finding joy in difficult seasons doesn’t come from forcing positive emotions or ignoring hardship. Joy is the fruit of a life rooted in Christ. As we abide in Him, the Holy Spirit produces a joy that can remain steady even when life feels anything but.

Key Scriptures

Galatians 5:22–25

Paul describes joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Fruit isn’t manufactured through effort—it grows naturally in a healthy, living relationship with God.

John 15:1–11

Jesus describes Himself as the true vine and His followers as the branches. By remaining connected to Him, we receive the life that produces lasting fruit, including complete joy.

Habakkuk 3:17–18

Even when every visible sign of hope disappeared, Habakkuk declared, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” His joy rested in God’s unchanging character rather than his changing circumstances.

Hebrews 12:2

Jesus endured the cross because of “the joy set before him.” His example reminds us that biblical joy can exist alongside suffering because hope reaches beyond the present moment.

1. Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Begins by Abiding in Jesus

One of the most powerful images from the message was that of a fruit tree. Trees don’t strain to produce fruit. They bear fruit because they are alive, deeply rooted, and connected to their source of life.

Jesus uses this same picture in John 15. He doesn’t tell us to try harder to become joyful. Instead, He invites us to remain in Him. As branches connected to the vine, we receive everything we need from Him.

Finding joy in difficult seasons starts not with self-improvement but with staying close to Christ. Joy grows where connection with Jesus is nurtured day after day.

2. Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Means Choosing God’s Story over Our Feelings

Hard seasons often come with discouraging thoughts. We begin believing we’re alone, forgotten, or defined by our failures. The message encouraged us to preach God’s promises to ourselves instead.

Scripture repeatedly reminds us that God is faithful, present, forgiving, and near. While our feelings matter, they don’t always tell the whole story. God’s truth reaches deeper than our emotions, giving us solid ground when circumstances feel uncertain.

As we continue filling our hearts with God’s promises, we become better equipped to recognize His faithfulness when life feels overwhelming.

3. Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Grows Through Gratitude

Gratitude isn’t pretending life is perfect. It’s intentionally noticing where God is already present. The sermon highlighted how practicing gratitude trains our attention toward God’s goodness. Rather than ignoring pain, gratitude helps us recognize moments of grace that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

One practical way to do this is through the ancient practice known as the Prayer of Examen—a simple reflection that asks questions like:

Where did I experience God’s presence today?
What am I grateful for?
When did I feel most alive?
Where was God inviting me closer?

These small moments help us remain connected to the vine, where joy continues to grow.

4. Finding Joy in Difficult Seasons Rests in the Hope of the Resurrection

Perhaps the deepest encouragement from the message was this: Christians are resurrection people. Our hope isn’t based on whether today is easy. It’s based on the truth that Jesus defeated death and that God’s final word is life—not suffering, loss, or despair.

That doesn’t remove pain, but it transforms how we walk through it. Because Jesus lives, we know difficult seasons never tell the entire story. Finding joy in difficult seasons becomes possible because our hope rests in the One who holds us securely through every circumstance.

Practicing This Week

Spend a few minutes each day reading John 15 and asking God to help you remain connected to Him.
When discouraging thoughts arise, answer them with one promise from Scripture.
End each day by thanking God for three specific moments of His goodness.
Practice noticing where God was present during your week before rushing into the next one.

Questions for Reflection

What circumstances have made joy feel difficult lately?
What does it look like for you to remain connected to Jesus this week?
Which promise of God do you most need to remember right now?
Where have you already seen God’s goodness, even in a challenging season?
How might gratitude help you notice God’s presence more intentionally?

Jesus never promised a life free from hardship, but He did promise His presence. As we remain connected to Him, He faithfully grows what we cannot manufacture ourselves.

May you experience finding joy in difficult seasons not because life becomes easier, but because Christ remains faithful through every season. His grace is enough, His presence is near, and His joy is available to every heart that abides in Him.

Christian gratitude practice: love and discipline

Gratitude That Grows Us: Love, Discipline, and a Balanced Life

Written by Kay Stonecypher on February 4, 2026. Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Gratitude That Grows Us: Love, Discipline, and a Balanced Life

This week at The Journey, we explored Christian gratitude practice as a way of living. It isn’t just a nice attitude—it’s a spiritual practice that reshapes our hearts and helps us live with balance. We looked at how God’s love and God’s discipline work together, and how learning gratitude can move us away from entitlement and resentment and toward forgiveness and freedom.

This Week’s Sermon: Gratitude Leads to Calm

Key Takeaways

God is fully loving and God also forms us through discipline—both are meant to lead us into freedom.
In Romans 1, Paul names ingratitude as a root problem: people “know about God” but don’t thank Him.
Gratitude helps us release entitlement and resentment and become more content, joyful people.
Gratitude can be learned—sometimes we have to practice it like a discipline, not just wait to “feel” it.
Forgiveness is one of the clearest ways gratitude shows up in real life: forgiven people learn to forgive.

Sermon Highlights: When Life Feels Heavy, Gratitude Can Feel Out of Reach

Some days, gratitude as a Christian practice comes easily. You notice a good conversation, a warm meal, a moment of beauty, and “thank you” rises up naturally. Other days, gratitude feels almost impossible—especially when you’re stressed, disappointed, hurting, or carrying something you can’t fix.

And yet, this week at The Journey Church, we talked about why gratitude matters most in the real world—where life is imperfect, pain is real, and we’re trying to follow Jesus with honesty. Not by pretending everything is fine, but by learning a grateful way of living that’s grounded in God.

Big Idea of This Week’s Teaching

Gratitude is not just a personality trait—it’s a spiritual practice that helps us live a balanced, mature life with God.

We began with a simple framework: love and discipline. Many of us lean toward one side more naturally. Some of us resonate with God’s love—His compassion, mercy, and care. Others connect strongly with discipline—obedience, self-control, and spiritual formation. But the invitation this week was to see that God holds both perfectly.

God’s love is grace: self-sacrificing, humble, forgiving. And God’s discipline isn’t punishment or condemnation—it’s a Father’s guidance that shapes us into disciples and leads us into freedom.

Key Scriptures

Romans 1:18–21 — Here, Paul describes how people reject God and “crush the truth,” and highlights a surprising core issue: they “know about God” but do not thank Him. Ingratitude isn’t small; it’s spiritually serious.
Psalm 103:2 — “Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.” This verse became a simple call to remember God’s goodness—especially when it’s easy to overlook.
The Eucharist (Communion) — We were reminded that “Eucharist” comes from a Greek word meaning thanksgiving, and that coming to the table is a tangible, embodied way to give thanks for Jesus’ life given for us.

1. Love and Discipline Are Both Part of God’s Good Heart

It’s easy to say “God is love”—and it’s true. God fully loves you. He adores you. You are His masterpiece.

But this week we were reminded that God is also a God who forms us. He disciplines—not to shame or crush us, but to correct and strengthen us. Discipline and punishment aren’t the same thing. God isn’t looking for reasons to condemn; He’s leading us into a life that works, a life that’s more whole.

And the reality is: whenever love and discipline get out of balance, chaos follows. Too much “love” without boundaries becomes enabling. Too much “discipline” without tenderness becomes harshness. God invites us into a better way—a balanced way.

2. Ingratitude Isn’t a Small Problem—It’s a Root Problem

One of the most striking moments in the teaching came from Romans 1, where Paul describes humanity’s drift away from God. And the sermon paused on a phrase that can feel surprisingly ordinary: “They don’t thank Him.”

We might think of gratitude as basic manners—something you teach a child. But Scripture paints it as deeper than politeness. Ingratitude can be a sign that we’ve started living as if we’re self-sufficient, as if life is ours to control, as if blessings are random and God is distant.

When we lose gratitude, we don’t just become negative—we become disconnected. We begin looking to other things to make life work: success, money, comfort, approval, control. And beneath that, we often find something else: rejection, anger, and the slow drift toward resentment.

3. Entitlement and Resentment Grow Where Gratitude Shrinks

The sermon used a blunt old word: “ingrate.” It describes someone who doesn’t appreciate what they’ve been given.

When we live as ingrates, entitlement starts to take over: “Life should work the way I think it should.” And when it doesn’t, we can begin to assume life is targeting us, that suffering is unfair, that we’re uniquely burdened. But the truth is: no one escapes pain and heartache. The people around you carry stories you may not know.

“Don’t forget all of God’s benefits—gratitude helps us release entitlement and practice forgiveness.”

Gratitude doesn’t erase suffering—but it refuses to ignore blessings that exist alongside it. And without gratitude, we become chronically unsatisfied. Even enormous gain won’t be enough. The heart that can’t say thank you will struggle to find joy, contentment, or peace.

4. Gratitude as a Christian Practice, Not Just a Feeling

For some people, gratitude feels natural. For others, it must be practiced—trained, repeated, chosen. And that’s not a failure. It’s formation.

This week included a simple and hopeful message: you can learn gratitude. Not as forced cheerfulness, but as a daily re-centering of your heart toward God’s goodness.

“Gratitude isn’t just a feeling—it’s a discipline that reshapes our hearts and leads us into freedom.”

One example was “gratitude for imperfect gifts”—the small, not-quite-what-you-wanted moments. Like receiving raisins when you hoped for candy, a child making the bed imperfectly, a spouse’s awkward attempt at affection, a body that doesn’t work the way it used to, but still carries you through the day, or just waking up today—because not everyone did.

Remember, imperfect gifts can still be gifts. And noticing them can soften entitlement, quiet resentment, and open our hearts to God’s care.

Practicing This Week

Here are a few simple, Christian gratitude practices from the sermon to try this week:

Thank God for one imperfect gift each day.
Choose something ordinary or imperfect and name it as a gift anyway. Let it train your heart away from entitlement.
Pray two words: “Thank you” and “Help me.”
If prayer feels complicated, keep it simple. Start with gratitude, then bring your needs honestly.
Name three “benefits” before bed.
Borrow Psalm 103:2—don’t forget God’s benefits. Write them down or say them out loud.
Thank God for a person.
If you haven’t been doing this, start. Gratitude grows when we remember we’re not alone.
Practice forgiveness as an act of gratitude.
Ask the hard question from the sermon: Who do I need to forgive? Forgiveness is a gift you’ve received in Jesus—and it becomes a gift you can offer, one step at a time.

Questions for Reflection

When you think about God, do you naturally lean toward His love or His discipline? What might balance look like for you right now?
Where have you noticed entitlement or chronic dissatisfaction creeping into your heart lately?
What “imperfect gift” have you been overlooking—something you could thank God for today?
Who do you need to forgive—and what makes that forgiveness hard?
If Jesus asked you, “Who do you need to forgive?” how might you be part of that answer too?

This Christian gratitude practice helps us grow in love and discipline. Gratitude isn’t about performing for God or pretending life doesn’t hurt. It’s about remembering that Jesus is with you—and that His grace is real, even in the middle of struggle. As we practice gratitude together, we’re not trying to earn God’s love; we’re learning to receive it more deeply—and to become the kind of people who carry that love into the world with humility, balance, and hope.

Practicing Gratitude in Every Moment

Written by Danielle Engel on November 25, 2025. Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Practicing Gratitude in Every Moment

This week at The Journey, we explored gratitude—not as a nice extra for when life is going well, but as a way of seeing the world with God at the center. Scripture invites us to “give thanks in all circumstances,” and we practiced that together by naming God’s good gifts, big and small, and by choosing humility instead of entitlement and grumbling. The teaching concluded with a practical challenge: make a gratitude list, choose one person from it, and tell them how thankful you are—approaching the Eucharist table with the same spirit of thanks that Jesus showed the night before His death.

This week’s sermon: Thanksgiving: Growing in Gratitude

Key Takeaways

Gratitude is not optional in Scripture; it’s part of God’s will for who we become.
To be grateful, we must intentionally look for good in a world wired for fear and negativity.
Every good and perfect gift in our lives ultimately comes from God.
Gratitude grows best in humility, not entitlement or grumbling.
Every moment—ordinary or painful—is an opportunity to say “thank You” to God.

Sermon Highlights: Practicing Gratitude in Every Moment

There’s something deeply spiritual about sharing a meal together. We opened this week’s service with worship and with pie—celebrating “Pie Day” and all the meals in Scripture where Jesus taught, healed, and revealed God’s heart around a table. Food becomes a reminder of God’s care and sustenance: “You take care of us and you’re with us.”

From that place, we turned toward gratitude. Not just the word “thanks” on a holiday card, but a posture of heart that Scripture describes as central to God’s will for us.

Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

God’s will, the teaching reminded us, is less about what we do and more about who we become. We are called to be people who give thanks—period. In all circumstances. Highs and lows, feasts and famines, joys and sorrows.

The Big Idea: Gratitude Is a Practiced Way of Seeing

Across several letters, Paul keeps returning to the same theme:

To the Ephesians, he urges them to “always give thanks to God the Father for everything.”
To the Colossians, he ties peace and gratitude together: let Christ’s peace rule in your hearts, and “be thankful,” singing to God with gratitude.

The message for us was clear: gratitude is not negotiable in the life of faith. But it’s also not automatic.

Some of us learned to say “thank you” for everything, and that habit became part of who we are. Others struggle to feel genuine gratitude, especially when we feel tired, discouraged, or overwhelmed. The teaching named this honestly: we won’t become grateful people by accident. We have to practice gratitude.

So as the sermon continued, everyone was invited to do something very concrete:

Take the blank piece of paper near your seat and start a gratitude list.
Write down names, moments, experiences, even hard seasons where God met you. Keep writing throughout the teaching as God brings things to mind.

Gratitude is not just a concept. It’s ink on paper, a list in your hand, a conscious choice to notice.

1. Gratitude Begins by Seeing the Good

Our brains are wired to scan for danger. We notice threats, problems, and everything that’s broken. That’s useful for survival, but if we live from that place all the time, we can end up believing all of life is bad, or that we’re victims of everything happening around us.

Psalm 103 offers a different lens:

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits…”

The teaching unpacked that word “benefits”—from the Latin bene, meaning good. God is a benefactor, a “factory for good,” constantly pouring out good things on us:

Forgiving our sins
Healing our diseases
Redeeming our lives from the pit
Crowning us with love and compassion
Satisfying our desires with good things

Those gifts don’t disappear when life is hard; they’re often just harder to see. Gratitude begins when we deliberately look for God’s benefits and write them down: the people who’ve stood by us, the comfort in suffering, the food we enjoy, the sleep we needed, the grace we don’t deserve.

2. Gratitude Sees That God Is Everywhere

The sermon used a beautiful phrase: we live in a “God-bathed world.”

It’s easy to focus on chaos—news cycles, global crises, personal stress—and quietly believe that God is not in control. But James reminds us:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…”

Good things in your life are not random accidents. They come from Someone. That’s why everyone was encouraged to literally write “God” on their gratitude list.

When we recognize that God is always at work for our good—even through our own messy decisions and consequences—gratitude shifts from generic optimism to a response to a real Person who loves us.

The book of James also challenges us to release what we can’t control and focus on what we can: the small, daily ways we respond, choose, and love. That shift—from global overwhelm to local faithfulness—opens our eyes to countless gifts we were overlooking.

3. Gratitude Grows in Humility, Not Entitlement

At its core, gratitude is the opposite of entitlement.

When we feel like we’re owed something, it becomes almost impossible to say “thank You” from the heart. The teaching used a simple picture:
If someone hands you a car for free, you’re stunned and grateful. If you pay full price for that same car, it’s a fair transaction—you don’t feel like you’ve received a gift.

God does not want a transactional relationship with His children. He wants us to live in humility, recognizing that life itself is sheer gift.

Scripture warns us against grumbling—that low-level muttering, the constant sense that life is unfair and we’re not getting what we deserve. Grumbling and gratitude cannot coexist. When our hearts are full of complaint, it’s a signal to re-examine our entitlement and return to humility.

The sermon invited us to notice this:
If you find yourself too mad, too anxious, too annoyed at people and situations—especially things you can’t control—it might be time to ask, “Have I become entitled? Have I forgotten how much I’ve been given?”

Humility says: I am not owed this day, this breath, this food, this job, this relationship, this body. And humility naturally opens into gratitude.

4. Every Moment Is an Opportunity for Gratitude

If God’s will is that we “give thanks in everything,” then any moment can become holy ground:

When you wake up and put your feet on the floor, you can thank God for another day to love and serve.
When you see the Colorado sun after a gray week, you can be thankful for light.
When you exercise or work, you can be grateful for a body and mind that can still be used.
When you get a paycheck—large or small—you can thank God for provision.
When you receive care, kindness, or generosity from someone, you can thank God for that person.

That’s why you are invited not only to make a list but also to choose one name from it and circle someone who has positively impacted your life. The challenge:

Sometime today, write them a letter (or a substantial message) telling them why you’re grateful to God for them.
Not just a quick text, but a meaningful note of thanks.

You can give it to them, call and read it to them, or share it over coffee. It might feel awkward or vulnerable—but often the places that feel hardest to be grateful are the places where God most wants to grow us.

Gratitude at the Table of Jesus

The teaching ended at the Eucharist table—literally the “thanksgiving” table. On the night before His death, knowing He would suffer and be crucified within hours, Jesus gathered with His disciples for a final meal (Luke 22). He took bread and wine, and He gave thanks.

In the very moment He was facing betrayal, violence, and death, Jesus chose gratitude. He broke the bread and said, “This is my body, given for you.” He held the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you.”

Come to the table in that same spirit and remember: in plenty and in need, in palaces and prisons, God gives us His Son, His Spirit, and a community to walk with.

As we dip the bread into the wine or juice, we remember:

We are not alone.
We live in a God-bathed world.
Every good gift comes from a Father who delights to give.