I used to write fiction, and I had a close friend who had the same hobby.

She was miserable all the time, because she was stuck in a job that she didn’t want. She wanted her art to be her full-time job.

Unfortunately, if you know anything about the arts industry, it’s that it is notoriously hard to live off your art.

I’ve heard so many stories over the years of friends who had parents who refused to support their education if they decided to pursue something creative.

Living off your art is almost unheard of, something only the top of the top in the industry can do.

But my friend, she desperately wanted that.

She absolutely hated her corporate life. She wanted her art to be her full-time job, but she barely had any readers. Together, we tried to figure out ways to bring readers to her, but nothing worked.

One day, she counted the reads from all her stories, and I was surprised to find that she had about 70K reads in total.

I thought she had much less.

When I complimented her for it, she didn’t seem impressed.

I gave her statistical evidence that her performance was much better than average, and she seemed to refuse all of that evidence.

I praised her, but she brought up how other writers performed better, and said how she needed that instead.

My friend had something so good, yet she couldn’t see it.

And in every other area of her life, I noticed that she was constantly playing the comparison game.

And each time, she was only willing to compare herself to the people who did better than she did.

I asked her why she didn’t compare herself to someone who performed more poorly than she did.

And it was as if I had asked her a stupid question.

You see, this experience made me realise how important being thankful is.

If you lack gratitude, it has such an immense power to take all your joy away.

Ingratitude is a blindfold that prevents you from seeing the good in your life.

I’m sure all of you have heard the book of Job before.

It’s the book in the bible that talks about suffering.

What comes right after that book?

The book of Psalms.

It’s God’s intention to show us by this order that He wants us to praise Him for all our hardship.

Now, you may be going through a trial right now.

And as you look all around you, you think, “how can I be thankful for this?”

I understand that there are so many situations where it really seems like it can’t get worse.

You want to be thankful, but that is so hard with the way things are right now.

I am here to teach you how you can be thankful in absolutely any situation.

When you can’t find anything to be thankful about, practise this truth:

“I could be in Hell right now.”

We are all humans who have fallen short. We have all sinned.

And the penalty for that is death, and our rightful place is with the demons.

In Hell.

Yet, by God’s grace, you have come to believe in Jesus.

Your eternal destination is New Jerusalem/Heaven.

Now, you’re on earth, living out a life that should be pleasing to God.

He sent you trials to conform you to the image of His Son.

And while things can’t seem to get worse, you know they can.

You know you could’ve been dead right now.

You know you could be in Hell right this very moment.

Your deeds mean you deserve eternal damnation, yet Jesus was nailed to the cross for your salvation from Hell.

Next time you feel like you can’t give thanks for anything, remember this fact.

That wherever you are right now, you are not in the Hell you are supposed to be in.

God bless! I pray God sets you free and puts praise in your mouth for your trials.