Give Thanks....?

" ....how often do we stop to give thanks to Him?

At the end of a work day in your profession or job, do you ever take time to say,"Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving me the skill, ability, and health to do my work today"? Do you ever physically or mentally go through your house, look at your furnishings or various items of home decoration, and say to God, "Everything in the house and the food in the cupboard and the car (or cars) in the driveway are gifts from You. Thank you for your gracious and generous provision"? And if you are still a student, do you ever give thanks to God for the intellectual ability and financial provision that enables you to prepare yourself for your future vocation? When you give thanks at mealtimes is it routine and perfunctory, or is it a heartfelt expression of your gratitude to God for His continual provision of all your physical needs?

Ephesians 5:20 " Give thanks always for all things to God the Father....."

There is question though that may have entered your mind.

Are we to give God thanks when the circumstances do not turn out as we had hoped?

Romans 8:28 tells us that for those who love God, all things work together for good; for "things" - that is circumstances - do not work together for good themselves. Rather God directs the outcome of those crcumstances for our good. Paul is telling us that God intends all our circumstances, both good and bad to be instruments of sanctification, of growing us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

So in situations that do not turn out the way we had hoped we are to give God thanks that He will use the situation in some way to develop our Christian character.

The giving of thanks is to be done by faith in the promises of God not by sheer willpower. If we do that we are giving thanks with our lips but not with our hearts. But as we cling to the promises of God we can say, " Father, the circumsatnces I am in now is difficult and painful.I would not have chosen it, but You in Your love and wisdom chose it for me. You intend it for my good, and so by faith I thank you for the good You are going to do in my life through it. Help me to genuinely believe this and be able to thank You from my heart.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

- an excerpt from Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges