“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thessalonians 5:18)
Being thankful is so important to God that He actually commands us to be thankful. A man in the New Testament by the name of Paul went through a tremendous amount of suffering and heartache that would cause anybody to be bitter and ungrateful and maybe even mad at God. But even still, he wrote these words, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (I Thessalonians 5:18).
You may not feel very thankful right now because of where you are in your life. But even though you may not feel thankful, you can be thankful. With that in mind, today and tomorrow we are going to look at three ways Paul tells us to be thankful and why he says we should be thankful.
First, we should be habitually thankful. Nowhere will you find in Scripture where we are commanded to “feel” thankful. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings can be affected by the weather, the temperature, the functioning of your liver, how much rest you got the night before, or how the stock market is doing.
Giving thanks has nothing to do with feelings. And that’s actually a good thing because that means you can be thankful even if you don’t feel thankful. It doesn’t matter whether things are good or whether things are bad. We are to give thanks. Our gratitude should become a habit because habits don’t change based on circumstances. Rather, our circumstances adapt to our habits.
I hope you’ll check back tomorrow as we discuss two more ways we can practice thankfulness as we follow Jesus.
Dear Lord, I have so much to be thankful for because of you. But I also know that I don’t always practice my thankfulness habitually based on how I feel in the moment. So I pray that no matter what my circumstances look like, you would help me to be grateful. Give me a thankful heart. Help me to be content and find my joy and peace in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Topics: Thankful
