Thankful in Everything

Oftentimes, it can be easy to take things for granted. The things we've discussed this week are no exception. That said, relatively speaking, it's easy to be thankful for the good things. Relative to what? The difficult things in life.

Even the secular world shows gratitude for the positive things, but Christian thankfulness extends to every area of life, even the difficult parts.

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials," - James 1:2

This is a difficult concept to distill down in a few paragraphs. I don't believe that James, or any of the authors in Scripture, are saying that we are to be joyful for and grateful for bad things like sin and evil and the like. I believe we are to hate sin and fight against evil.

Even so, God allows trials to come, and we know that He is good and that He has a plan and purpose. Even James goes on to elaborate on his own words:

"knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." - James 1:3-4

So are to be grateful for the bad thing itself? Perhaps not, but we can be for the results. And that is by way of introduction.

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

While there is a lot to expound in this, for the sake of this weeks theme we'll look primarily at the last section.

We're called to give thanks, to be thankful, to show thankfulness and gratitude. When? "in everything".

There's no qualifier for this. It doesn't say give thanks in good times, or most of the time. But in everything.

The only way I can make sense of this is to look at it through the lens of God's purposes and plans, and His character.

The oft quoted Romans 8:28 really is helpful in this:

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

If that's true, then that helps us to give thanks in everything.

But I think Paul in his writing to the Thessalonians gave us a helpful note. In between Rejoicing always and being thankful in everything, two very inter-connected ideas, is the phrase "pray without ceasing".

This kind of gratitude and rejoicing is not something we can manifest on our own. We need the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

While we typically don't think about being thankful for difficult times in life, we can take comfort knowing that God is at work in it for our good and His glory.