Giving Thanks In All Things
I know I’m not alone when it comes to wishing bad things wouldn’t happen in my life. When bad things happen, I (more than I would like to confess) do not give thanks, but I complain and whine. I ask the Father, ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘Why me?’ and wish I could close eyes and it all be over. Unfortunately, that is not the way our Father wants us to respond. I am reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and it has really changed the way I look at life, tragedy specifically. What if we thanked the Father for the struggles right along with the victories in our life? How different would our days, months, and years look? I truly believe mine would look a lot different than they do now.
Life is made up of thousands of moments, good and bad. I’m realizing that we should enjoy all moments in life and embrace them. The good ones are to be cherished and celebrated. The bad ones should push us to our Father and seeking to see what He wants to change in us. What if the “bad” is only how we perceive it? What if it’s not bad, it’s just a way of Him shaping and molding us back into His image. You know, we were made in His image, but after the Fall, our sinfulness taints us. So it would make sense that He wants to shape us back to His image.
Holy.
Righteous.
Faithful.
True.
So why fight it? Why complain about the hard? Because we are human and we are children. We can’t see the whole picture, just like our children can’t see the whole picture. In the hard times, we discover who we truly are and what we’re truly made of.
When loved ones die…
When a fire takes everything we have…
When our jobs are lost…
When our appliances break with no money to spare…
That’s when we see how thankful we really are to the Father. Why on earth would we thank Him for brokenness? Because in that brokenness we can become more like His Son. Thanksgiving is a state of mind, it’s a lifestyle. When we raise our hands to praise when tragedy strikes, we defeat our foe and please our Father. We may never know why tragedy strikes, but we can rest in the fact that we serve the One who does. He is good. He is working all things out for those who love Him. So we have to trust and give thanks. We have to accept whatever the Father gives us. It’s coming either way, we can receive it joyfully or we can receive it in bitterness, either way it’s coming.
He has a plan and a journey for each one of us. We have to seek out the lesson in each season of joy and each season of trial. Cycles. Life is about cycles. Good will come and good will go. Hard will come and hard will go. We must hold tight to our God and trust.
Father, You are so good to us. You love us more than we can ever know. You desire to see us back to Your image. Help us to receive all that You give us. Help us to truly give thanks for the good and the bad. May we see how we can learn from every situation in our life. You can use whatever You want to grow us and reshape us. Thank You for not leaving us as we are, but for drawing us closer to You and helping us back to the state which You desire. May we live in a state of thankfulness and thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pingback: Giving Thanks In All Things | Becoming Titus 2 Women
Great reminder to trust Him with the good and the bad. It is hard to be thankful when going through some rough times, but we need to remember that He is right there with us.
God is always faithful. In the good and the bad and no matter our circumstances I will praise Him!