#46 Learn the Ultimate Gratitude Hack for Your Life

Summer has a way of turning the volume up, on schedules, on stress, on old habits we thought we’d outgrown. So, I’m opening Psalm 107 and reading it slowly, because it’s one of the clearest pictures I know of real life with God: we wander, we end up hungry or stuck, we hit storms that take us to the end of ourselves, and then we cry out and He delivers. The line that keeps repeating becomes the heartbeat of the whole message: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.” 

We unpack what that kind of gratitude actually is. It’s not pretending everything is fine or forcing yourself to “look on the bright side.” Gratitude is remembering what God has done and locking into His mercy when your circumstances are still imperfect.... then we get very practical because I want you to have tools, not just inspiration. I share a journaling practice that’s carried me through hard seasons.

If this encouraged you, subscribe wherever you listen or on YouTube, share it with a friend who needs steadiness right now, and leave a review so more women can find the show. What’s one gratitude or “I am” you’re choosing to stand on this week?

Transcript

Welcome And Summer Prep Series

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Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host, Desiree Melfi Bozo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable, unwavering, unmessable with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao, friends. Welcome back to the Life Out Loud Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I'm your host, Deser MLF. Today we are going to dive in a little bit more for the summer prep kind of a series. There's three episodes that specifically talk about how we fortify our hearts and our minds for summer. It's coming. It is here. It is on the horizon, literally. Maybe just knocking at the back door. It's getting closer. Anyway. So if you're listening to this and you hear something beneficial that somebody you know and love might um get some benefit from, definitely pass it on. This podcast literally exists to help women draw closer to Jesus in really practical ways. And so if there's something in here that you're like, hmm, so-and-so should hear this, definitely pass it on. Don't forget, please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube. Love my subscribers. So we are gonna dive in today.

Reading Psalm 107 Aloud

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Uh last week we talked about fortifying. Today we're gonna dive into Psalm 107. This wasn't actually intentional. Um I was listening to another podcast and it came up and I'm like, let me read it, let me listen to it, and really started diving in and taking it apart. And it is lovely. It is so lovely. And so I thought it was timely. Um, it's one I've read Psalm 107. Uh, it's been here. I've read it as I read through, whoops, have read through Psalms, and it didn't, because God's word is active, right? Uh living, breathing, active, it didn't resonate in the past like it did now. And so timely, I think. So we're gonna dive into that um today. I hope it's as beneficial and helpful and lovely for you as it was for me. Uh, it's a little bit long, so I'm gonna I'm gonna read through it uh to give us the full context. Hang tight and we're gonna dive in. Psalm 107. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story, those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from the east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Verse 7 He led them by a straightway to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. For he satisfies the thirsty and he fills the hungry with good things. Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God's commands and despised the plans of the Most High. So he subjected them to bitter labor. They stumbled and there was no one to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, seeing a pattern here, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Verse 16 For he breaks down gates of bronze, he cuts through bars of iron. Some became fools through their rebellious ways, and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them and rescued them from the grave. I bet you know what's coming next. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Verse 22. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy. Some went out to the sea in ships. They were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord for his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths in their peril, their courage melted away. They reeled and straggered, staggered like drunkards. They were at their wit's end. Ready, you know this. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm with a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad and it grew calm when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired heaven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds of mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders. Verse 33, ten more verses. Here we go. He turned the rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into salt waste because of the wickedness of those who lived there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into the flowing springs. There they brought the hungry to live, and they found a city, they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded fruitful harvest. He blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased. He did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled by oppression, calamity, and sorrow. He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in a trackless waste, but he lifted the nerd the needy out of their affliction and increased the families like flocks. The upright seek justice, but the wicked shut their mouths. Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.

The Refrain That Shapes Gratitude

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Let's unpack that. That was a lot. It's fine. There is a repeated refrain here, verses 8, 15, 21, and 30. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. It becomes the heart of this message. What is that saying? What does this all mean? There was a lot there. Gratitude. So we're going to start on today. Gratitude, the topic of conversation, expands when we remember what God has done. So there's three things that gratitude does.

Gratitude Helps God Pull Us In

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The first one is it helps us remember that God pulls us in. Okay. We stray from the Lord. No matter how close we want to stay hemmed in, it happens. Okay. Commentary that I read said perpetual proneness of the human heart to wander away from the living God. That is what happens for humanity. The psalm opens with wandering people. They are lost, they are thirsty, they are hungry, and they are exhausted. We're all wandering in some way. Some outwardly, and we can clearly see it, but some of it happens behind closed doors. We're all wandering. And when we focus on gratitude, we lock into God and into his inexhaustible, inexhaustible, literally without exhausting mercy. Okay. That means it just keeps coming for us. His mercy. Gratitude isn't pretending that life is easy. I want to get really clear here because sometimes, um, well, I'll just say it. Sometimes people can hear me say, there's always something to be grateful for. And in their minds, they're like, or behind my back, uh, Pollina, there she is again. It's not that. I promise you. Gratitude has literally actually nothing to do with that. Okay. It's not pretending life is easy or perfect. What gratitude is, it's locking into God because you've seen the greatest calamities and the greatest downfall. Gratitude is locking into God in the middle of complete and utter imperfection. It is nothing short of glorious. So the first thing I want to leave you with today regarding Psalm 107 is gratitude helps us really remember that God pulls us

Seeing God In Dark Places

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in. Okay. Second thing, gratitude see gret. What? Who's what's happening? Gratitude sees God in the dark places. Verses 10 to 16 here talk about sitting in darkness and chains. What this was referring to was Israel's captivity in uh Babylon's 70 years of confinement. Okay. Ours might not look like actual prisons, okay? But they may be prisons we created in our minds or in our hearts. Ours might be habits that are keeping us chained or walls that we built to keep us protected. What happens when we build walls around us? Walls us in too. Pretty soon we look around and we're like, oh, it's just me. That's not good. Trust me, I know this, right? Verse 16, though, our God, though, he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. God shattered the gates and broke the chains. This is exactly what happens when gratitude enters the scene of our life. There's a connection here, and I'm sure you heard it as I read through it, because at every pass it just shouted, Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah. There's a connection between Psalm 107, 16, and specifically Isaiah 45, 2, where it says, I will go before you, I will level the mountains, I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. That's our God. He's amazing. He's amazing like that. Isaiah 45 is a promise, and Psalm 107 is the praise. Okay. In Isaiah, God was speaking to um Cyrus before his rise to power. It was a promise to go before him, it was a promise to remove the obstacles. In Psalm 107, it praises what Isaiah 45 actually promised. Okay. So now uh I want to mention, I think this is worth mentioning, the God who goes out before us, who clears the way for us, is also the God who breaks the chains that we can't. So if there's a thing holding you, stronghold that's got you, a habit you can't break out of, lean into him. Because he's the chainbreaker. Chainbreaker, way maker. What? Right? Gratitude isn't just thanking God for the pretty things. They are pretty. There are many pretty, lovely, wonderful things here, but it's also thanking him for delivering us from the ugly and the dark and the gritty things. Last thing I want to leave

Mercy When Our Failure Hurts

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you with. Gratitude sees God's mercy, wah wah, in our failure. Okay. That wasn't a wah-wah for mercy. It was for our failure anyway. This is uh verse 17 to 22, right? We've all been human long enough to know that sometimes uh that we're the creator of our deepest sufferings, not other people, not out there, it's our own stuff, right? So even here, God still, still rescues us. And he doesn't do it because we earned it. We can never be good or great or wonderful or perfect in us enough to ever earn his grace. He didn't do it because we earned any of it. He did it and still does it because he is that good. And this might be the biggest gratitude of all, I think. I'm gonna point us to Romans 5.8. Uh but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. While we were still awful, horrible humans. Jesus was like, see that one? Yeah, that one. Love them, dying for them. He did it for you, and he did it for me while we still totally completely sucked. That's how much he loves us. I've lived with me for well, it'll be 43 years uh this Friday. Yay! How fun. I've had a front row seat to uh my self-sabotage, to my shortcomings, to my failures, and somehow, some way, he still loves us. He still in all of it loves you, loves me. His mercy in our worst failures, and some days still wrecks me. It's amazing to me. He is so, so good. Uh, I I did say that was the last thing I would leave you with. I was just kidding. I have one more, uh, two more, one more, one more. Uh, last thing for real for real this

Trusting God Through Every Storm

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time. Uh, for real Ze's, last thing I'm leaving you with gratitude trusts God through every single storm. This is 23 to 32. Talked about the storms. These people were facing literal storms in the sea and came to the end of themselves. Verse 29, he stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. If you're going through a storm right now, we served the God that stills the storm to a whisper and hushes the waves of the sea. That's the God we serve. He did it back then and he still does it today. Gratitude isn't based on calm conditions. And I think sometimes we think it has to be. I think sometimes we think of gratitude and we're like, yeah, well, when everything's perfect, I'll I'll be grateful. What? No, no, no. You have to do it in the middle of the storm and the chaos. Gratitude is rooted in knowing who God is. It's in the middle of the chaos, knowing He is still on that throne. He's still in complete control. Uh 10743. It's the last verse on this. I'm gonna read from the message and then I'm gonna read it again from um the what NIV. Uh so the message is a little straightforward, but it's fine. Uh, if you are really wise, you'll think this over. It's time you appreciated God's deep love. A little scathing there, huh? Uh the NIV 10743. Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. I love that that uh phrase, ponder. Ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. Being wise isn't just the knowledge of it, knowing it, being informed in our minds, right? It's not just having it up here, it's traveling the, I don't know how tall you, 18 and 12 inches, however many inches it is, from your head to your heart. It's having it travel that to our hearts and remember that gratitude is knowing he brought us home, he breaks the chains, he's still breaking chains, he shows mercy in every single one of ourselves, sabotaging sometimes failures, and he carries us through the most horrific of storms.

A Journal Practice For Gratitude

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So, to help us remember what God has done, I think we need practical things in our life to fortify gratitude. Okay. And so last week I talked about or last time, last podcast, I talked about our mindsets. And now I wanna, as we talk about gratitude, I want to give you a practice that's really helped me to get through some of this, to really lean into this gratitude. So I have a journal, right? Looks like that. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm holding up a journal, it's spiral bound. Uh, I don't know, I usually try and pick cute ones just because whatever. Um, I have a whole row of them because I've been doing this for a long time. It's that important of a practice to get into. I encourage you. So get yourself a journal, okay? Figure out what that looks like for you. And I try every day. It's not perfect, definitely not perfect. I miss days and sometimes weeks in a year. Uh, but I I write down the date and then I write down 10 things I am, because something happens as we go through life. How we feel starts to become who we are. So we walk around saying lies like, I'm so tired and I'm so stressed and I'm so angry and I'm so happy and I'm so this and so that. And we have to decouple the I ams with how we feel. Because the reality is you're don't you're not actually stressed, you feel stressed. You're not actually overwhelmed, you feel overwhelmed. And I'll go so far as to say you're not actually happy, you feel happy in that moment because of whatever circumstances you decided to say, I am happy. No, you feel that way. We have to decouple who we are with how we feel, okay? Because if we don't, then things happen in life, good and bad. And instead of like neutral, we're like here and here, right? And if you're watching, I'm like a roller coaster, okay? We're up and down and up and down, and like find a neutral. Like, who are you? Right. And so you list, I am, I am what? I am, I am joyful. No matter my circumstances, I stand in joy. I am grateful. No matter my circumstances, I will stand in gratitude. Like all of the things that you are, right? The unchanging, unmoving, unmiss unmessable, unshakeable, right? All those things that are unchanging about you, those, that's who you are. You declare it, you write it down, say it out loud as you're writing it. 10 Iams. Okay. From there, you write your 10 gratefuls. Okay. Dopamine, serotonin. This is the best way to get the best hit of those very fast. Start writing down the things you're grateful for. And let me be honest with you, some days in the middle of February, it's like, I'm grateful for coffee. What? That's fine. I, that is okay. Oh, saw the sun peek through the clouds, grateful for that sliver of sunshine. Saw my husband today for two minutes in our crazy lives, grateful for him, grateful for our son. That little boy brings so much joy, right? So little things that you're grateful for. Those aren't little things, those are like amazing monumental things, but you know what I'm saying. Some days it's coffee and some days it's a whole lot more. Okay. Write down the things you're grateful for. And then as you have specific prayers, what I do might help you. I don't know. I'm not going to show this to you because if you pause it, you can probably read them and I don't want that. But I have sticky notes. Uh actually, here's a sticky note. Um, right here. Sticky notes, right? So I take my sticky notes and I write down different prayers that I have and I stick them to the front and I on the inside and I will go through, pray, pray, pray, and I write down um dates that I wrote them on there. So, like this one, I've been praying on this thing since uh January of 2022. And it's just been a prayer that I just keep bringing to the foot of the cross and the Lord hasn't answered it yet, but that's cool because I'm still gonna pray about it, right? And there's some that uh I just wrote uh two weeks ago and it's here and it's pretty much answered, and I could probably move it now. Um, so once it's answered, then what? I have another journal. Just go by stacking paper and journal. I don't know, anyways. Um, so what do you do? Well, I take those little sticky notes and I write them down in here, okay? And I write a little note of when it was answered and what the Lord's response was and what I learned from it. And sometimes, oh, this is lovely. Uh sometimes they are resounding no's. I am looking at a resounding no from 2018 right now, and the Lord's Spoke his word and it was no. And some of them are amazing there's a lot of explanation, uh, exclamation points on this one. Some of them are resounding yeses. But why is this important? That's a lot of journals and a lot of paper. What are you doing over there? Well, there's moments and days when this whole gratitude thing, Psalm 107, let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds of mankind when I am not feeling that. I'm reading the words, but like some days I just want evidence. I don't know, is it just me? So what do I do? I take this out and I read it, and I read through it. And every time I read through it, I get more encouraged. And I remember, I remember the wonderful deeds that the Lord has done, and I remember his unfailing love, prayers that I so desperately needed answers to that he answered one way or another. Whether I liked it or not, it's a different story. Thank God we're not our feelings. Oh, back full circle, right? So I'm sharing this with you because it's a little method, a little tool that I've developed over the years. I did not come up with it. It's pieced together from many people, way smarter and way more amazing than me. And I've borrowed their techniques to put together something for my life that works. So go on Amazon, go to Target, go wherever you go, and find yourself the cutest little journal, maybe two, that you can find. Get some cute little sticky notes and start writing down your I ams. Who are you in this world that's unshakable? That no matter what Satan whispers in your in your ear, whatever lie he tries to whisper, you could look at that and say, no, because this is who I am. This is who the Lord created me to be, right? So write that down. Write down the 10 things you're grateful for. Do it in the morning, do it at night, do it in the middle of your day, carry this thing around you. Sometimes I carry this. If I have to go teach on a day where I have to be out not here in my home office, I carry it with me. And in my five minutes that I have, I write it down,

Closing Encouragement And Ways To Share

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right? Take the time to focus in on the things that you're grateful for because over time it adds up. And over time it's evidence for you and your heart and your mind and even your situations of who God is in your life. So that was it. That's all I got. That is that is uh episode number 46 for you. I hope uh Psalm 107 was helpful. I hope this mantra, this these verses let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds uh for mankind. I hope that um that that's something you can repeat in your life, just have on repeat. Like this is who the Lord is, no matter what's happening, no matter what my circumstances are, this is what's coming up, and this is what the Lord is good for, right? He's so good, but sometimes, sometimes in the prisons and in the storms and on all the things, we gotta dig for that goodness. Okay. And so I hope that this, these two little journals were helpful tools for you um to really be able to lock in to who God is and oh man, just how good he is. He's so, so good. All right, that's all I got. Come back next time, friends. Uh, we're gonna throw more encouragement around like confetti. Always be careful. If you get too close, it's gonna all over you. Sandal season, all over your toes. Anyway, yeah, we're out in left field now. We are signing off, friends. Have an awesome week.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Cheers. Thank you for joining me, Desiree Melfi Bozzo, for this episode of Life Out Loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, tell me what topics you want to talk about, and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link, share it on social media, or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, beep up over to my webpage, lifeoutloud.me, and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time, sweet listeners.