Tuesday, September 7, 2010

In EVERYTHING Give Thanks??

I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." While on vacation in St. Ignace over Labor Day weekend with my wife, my parents, and about 35 other people from the Saranac/Clarksville area it came to my attention that Jay Frank (the son of the pastor of my home church while I was growing up) was giving thanks for the weather before our group meals despite the fact that the weather sucked. We had all driven up to Northern Michigan to enjoy the great outdoors and the outdoors was having the last laugh. It was cold, it was raining, and very few people were all that thrilled about it. And yet, before each meal, Jay would specifically give thanks for the weather along with the food and the fellowship, etc. After this had happened a couple of times, someone said to me, "he really shouldn't give thanks for this weather, God will think we like it"...the whole thing was good natured; funny actually, and when I prayed for the next meal I didn't make mention of the weather (which at the time was getting better, but not out of the woods yet) and followed it up by telling Jay that his previous thanks for the miserable weather hadn't been received with much enthusiasm...While this whole thing was just good natured fun during a time of vacation, it begs the question. Are we REALLY supposed to give thanks to the Lord in ALL things? Doesn't God know that I'm not happy with this or that current situation; how can he expect me to thank him for it? In the end, the reason that we do give thanks to the Lord in All things is because we're not thanking God for the circumstances (good or bad); we're thanking God for being who he is; for giving us life and for caring enough about our lives to send His Son to redeem us from sin. When you look at the big picture like that, you can still thank God for his goodness, his love, his mercy, his grace; despite the times when life is anything but good.

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