In Everything Give Thanks
Dawn A. Jones, Washington, DC
Catagory: Volume 1, Issue 11 and 12 November/December 1999
In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (I Thessalonians 5:18)
How many times have you desired to know the will of God for your life and have overlooked this verse? Yes, God does have a specific will for you and He has a general will that all of us are to follow. Just as it is God's Will that you do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him (Micah 6:8), it is His Will that in everything you give thanks. And, yes, He does mean in everything!
In perils, distress, persecutions, attacks, trials, and sorrows, as well as successes and triumphs, God expects thanksgiving. Now I know that it is not easy to give thanks when you are facing these things. In fact, when your faith is being tried and you're experiencing persecutions and afflictions the last thing you want to do is give thanks.
Some of you have even asked, Why should l give thanks for what the devil obviously did? Because you are not thanking God for the loss, you are thanking God in the time of loss or distress. God alone is omnipotent and omniscient, not the devil. What the enemy means for evil, God means for good. You can endure trials and distress by praising God in the midst of them. Praise is an act of your will, completely separate from your emotions. You should praise God in everything because you choose to obey Him. You can choose to take up your martyr's cross and attend the devil's pity party as the honored guest. (Personally, I have decided to stop attending.)
Situations can make you feel that God has abandoned you or that His Hand is against you. The truth is that God will never leave you nor forsake you, and that His mercy endures forever. God is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. (Psalms 103:8) His plans for you are to do you good and not evil, to give you hope and a future.
Currently, there may be circumstances that you cannot change. Yet, you can go through them experiencing God's overshadowing presence, peace, and joy by giving thanks. In light of the many great movements that have come in the past decades we have somehow come to believe that everything must always go well and that we should never have to endure anything because we are the children of the Most High. That is a lie. We are called to endure suffering, tribulation and persecution.
Even God's chastisement demonstrates His love. His judgments are just. And in every chastisement, His purpose is that we might come to repentance and restoration. We see this illustrated throughout the biblical history of the Israelites. They tempted God several times, and each time they suffered until they turned their hearts back to Him. God wants your heart ever towards Him.
Recently, I saw a picture in a magazine of Rwandan refugees at a camp in Zaire, and I wrote an inscription atop the page to myself that said, “Look at these people, and know that you are truly blessed.” The reason I wrote this to myself is that I, like most of you, often become focused on the things I don't have or that are going wrong in my life. But the people in the photo, huddled on the dry earth with blankets for covering, literally had nothing. And many of them had lost entire families.
I thought of what each mother felt sitting in the dust with her baby, with no food, no change of clothing, no fresh drinking water or a cool towel to wash his face. I know that I cannot relate because I have never experienced this.
I also noted on the picture that the refugees had no televisions, radios, VCRs, CD players, video games, lamps, accessories, silverware, furniture, or personal hygiene items. Only a few had a makeshift shelter from the elements, which consisted of a cloth thrown over sticks or wire. There was no electricity, no running water, and no soft carpet underneath their feet. In our modern, prosperous society, we have become so consumed by things. The more things that are invented, the more we seem to find a need for them in our lives. In reality they are luxuries and not needs at all. Thank God for all those luxuries.
As I looked, I had to ask God's forgiveness for my complaining, because I truly am blessed, like all of you. And as dismal as their plight seems, the people in the photo are blessed too, because they escaped the massacre that had claimed millions of others.
Life is about perspective and focus: realizing who God is in us, what He's given us and the eternal rewards that await us. What affects us the most is how we deal with circumstances and the things that surround us in life. The enemy uses your circumstances to defeat you in your mind. He displaces you from the Kingdom (righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost) when he steals your praise, by getting your mind focused on the things of the world.
Where is your attention? Is it in God's faithfulness and assurance of His ever-present love? Is it in the fact that you are a blood-bought, redeemed child of God who will inherit all things with Christ? Is it in the strength, might and infallibility of the God that you serve? Or is it on the cares of the world, and the lust of the flesh and other things? These things choke the Word and make it unfruitful in your life.
God is glorified in that you bear much fruit. (John 15:8) He wants you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is His good and perfect, and acceptable will. (Romans 12:2 )
So this month, be determined to do as King David, I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth... O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. (Psalm 34:1,3)
Not on one day, in one month, but in everything, in every situation, at all times, God is worthy of glory, honor and thanksgiving just because He is God!
