We associate giving thanks with times and experiences of good fortune. However, this deprives us of the full benefits of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is about giving glory to God, rather than glorying in the things of this world. It is to focus us on the person and power of God, regardless of our circumstances.
When Job lost all his children and was stripped of all his possessions in one day’s time, his recourse was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” When David and his men returned home to find their homes burned, with their families and possessions carried away, while David’s men spake of stoning him, “David encouraged himself in the Lord” (1 Samuel 30:6). When Stephen was facing the blood thirsty crowd that would bash and crush his body unto death by stoning, “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55)
The Book of Daniel sets forth men who would rather die giving glory to God, than they would live under the favors of a God denying society. In the day of trouble, the Psalmist wrote: “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities” (Psalm 31:7).
In times of adversity, we should be thankful that we have a God who knows all about our troubles: “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). As we are yielded to and abiding in Christ, God can use our adversity to show us things that we would never realize otherwise–things needed for our spiritual improvement.
Faith and reconciliation with God’s will opens the door to the understanding of appreciating God and what God does through all the circumstances of our lives: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Consider–“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). A person robbed with violence once prayed: “I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, although they took all, it wasn’t very much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.”
“In every thing give thanks!” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
SHARING
