In Thessalonians 5:18, Paul writes a pretty controversial sentence: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” On good days, I read this verse and I think, “Give thanks! Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give thanks! This is a great day and I have a lot to be thankful for!” But on not so good days…..or on really terrible, awful, horrible, no good, really bad days? I think “Give thanks? In all circumstances? Surely, you can’t mean all, God. There’s so much wrong here. What is there to be thankful for?” But as our guest pastor–a Greek scholar–likes to say, “The all here in the Greek means ALL.” God wants us to be thankful. All the time. No matter what. Good days or bad days. Rain or shine. When we’re blessed AND when we’re stressed. Be thankful.
That’s a tall order sometimes. Why does God put such an emphasis on thankfulness anyway? It has to do with the second part of this verse: “for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” God’s will. We know what God’s will is for us by studying the Word of God. All throughout the Bible, God reveals His will concerning our lives. It’s the same for all of us. Oh, sure, there are differing details here and there, but at the heart of the matter God’s will for each and every one of us is exactly the same: He wants us to be made in His image. After all, that’s the design plan. It’s the one He put on the drawing board when He first decided to make mankind. God is perfect. He has no flaws. He never has a Plan B. It’s always Plan A, and Plan A was to make mankind in His image.
There’s been a lot of debate about what that whole “in His image” part of our creation really means, but we get another glimpse when Paul talks to us in 2 Corinthians 3:18. He says, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The Passion Translation says it this way: “We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.“ When God created Adam and Eve, He made them in His image. When they sinned, a part of that image was tarnished, but in Christ it is restored. We are gradually made more and more like Jesus. That’s God’s will for our lives–for us to be more and more like Jesus.
Thankfulness plays a huge part in that. After all, God doesn’t possess negative qualities. Neither does Jesus. Thankfulness is a positive quality. It requires a positive outlook, a positive viewpoint, a positive attitude. It requires an ability to appreciate the good things, sometimes in spite of all the bad in the world. Thankfulness focuses on joy. It focuses on abundance. It doesn’t focus on lack. And with God, we have abundance. We have joy. We have good things. And we absolutely do NOT have lack! Thankfulness tunes our hearts to see what God is doing in the world. It recalibrates our perspective. Our focus is on the good things in our lives and not on the things we lack. James 1:17 tells us that “every good and perfect gift” comes from God. When our focus is on the good gifts that God gives us, our focus is on God!
With our focus on God, we are better positioned for blessings. We are better positioned to receive. We are better positioned to worship because God becomes bigger than anything else we are dealing with. When I recognize the qualities of God’s character, when I contemplate the many small and subtle ways He works in my life to bless me and bring me abundance and not lack, I cultivate an environment where faith and trust can flourish. I seek first after God, and I worship more fully.
But the truth is that I am often more focused on lack than I am on God. I’m often more tuned in to my circumstances than I am to what God is doing. I take my blessings for granted. You know how I know? Because I catch myself grumbling and complaining. Grumbling and complaining are NOT signs of thankfulness. Of course, we know that, but do we take it a step farther and think that if they aren’t signs of thankfulness they are also not signs of faith and trust? Ouch! I grumble and complain a lot, and when I do, I am not demonstrating faith in God.
The really sad part is that I often complain and grumble about the very thing that just a little while ago I was asking God to bless me with. Let me give you an example. When my husband left, I was tasked with getting a job in order to pay the bills. I was worried about that because there weren’t a lot of job options in the middle of the COVID shutdowns. I had applied for a job in answer to my husband’s request before he walked out, and I had said that if it was God’s will for me to return to the work force, I would work whatever job He gave me. I got the job I interviewed for. I was thankful for that job….until I tried to figure out how much I would be making and get a budget together.
When faced with the numbers, I could see that I wasn’t going to make enough to pay my bills and buy food. I let fear creep in. Then God told me He wanted me to tithe on my gross income instead of my net income like I had been doing before….and then He told me He wanted me to give a standing offering of the same amount each week. The panic started to creep in. But I got my act together, and I told God that I would obey Him and leave the details of how that was all going to work out in His capable hands. Fast forward, and the hours I was given steadily increased. Even with the additional tithe and offering money I was paying, I was making enough to pay the bills. Even after benefits started coming out of my check, God was providing a way for me.
And I was thankful….until this week, when my hours got cut unexpectedly. They weren’t cut by a huge amount, but enough to lose all that lovely overtime pay at time and a half. Did I remember that God knew what I needed and was more than capable of providing? Did I stay thankful for the ways He had already demonstrated this in my life? Not initially. Initially, I began to feel that sense of fear creep in again. I wondered if God wanted me to take matters into my own hands and pick up shifts at work. I picked up some extra hours, and I thanked God for them…..until I was exhausted. Then, I started to pray for a break. It was then I heard God say to me, “What do you want from me? You asked me for rest and time to do the things I had laid on your heart to do, so I cut your hours to give you that time. Then, you asked me for more hours at work to pay your bills, so I gave you more hours at work. Now, you want rest again. Make up your mind.”
Talk about conviction! I was faced with just how ugly my grumbling and complaining look to God, and I was faced with the reality that these acts of grumbling and complaining are NOT acts of faith. They are acts of unbelief. If I really believed that God wanted me to do the things He asked me to do, I would trust that He would make a way for me to do them. If I really believed that God would provide for my needs, I would trust that He would do so, even when I didn’t see it with my own eyes and couldn’t figure it out with my own reasoning abilities. And if I really believed those things about God, I would stay thankful! I would focus on the fact that God cares about the smallest detail of my life like how much sleep I get and whether or not I have time to fit in all the things He’s asked me to do. I would focus on the fact that God has provided in amazing ways since the very beginning. I would focus on the fact that God loves me and that He has a plan for my life and that that plan can’t be anything but good because God Himself can’t be anything but good.
But I didn’t. I focused on what I could hear and see and on what I felt. I focused on my own limited understanding as if God was on my level and I could somehow figure things out and He couldn’t. How insulting! But God was patient with me. He gently corrected my sinful ways. And I was suddenly reminded of Paul’s admonition to the Philippians: “Do everything without grumbling or complaining, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” When I take the time to allow God to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in my heart and I put my trust and faith and focus in Him, I become more like Jesus. I reflect His glory. And I reflect it so much, that I shine out like a star on a dark night. Then the world around me sees Christ within me simply because I chose to be thankful in ALL my circumstances.
Father, help me to remember to be thankful in all my circumstances. No matter what I’m going through, no matter what is going on around me, no matter how dark it looks or how bad it feels, You are always here. Your character and nature are enough. There is only good things in You, and if I focus on that, I will always have something to be grateful for. Father, put a watch over my lips, especially when I am tempted to grumble or complain. I want to be transformed more and more into Your image. I want to reflect your glory! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
A Beautiful Mess 