Give Thanks In Everything
“Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (CSB)
November is a few days out, and with it comes a whole month of talking about gratitude. Let's get a head start, and let's start with something that will save you a lot of frustration: gratitude is a discipline before it's a feeling.
That distinction matters. Paul doesn't say give thanks when you feel thankful. Nobody would need to be told that. He says give thanks in everything. In the waiting. In the pain. In the season that turned out nothing like you planned.
Read that preposition carefully, because it's not the one we usually assume. He says in everything, not for everything. You are not asked to thank God for the cancer, the divorce, or the funeral. You're asked to find something to thank Him for while you're in it. That's a very different assignment, and it's one you can actually do today.
And notice Paul doesn't argue for it on the grounds that it'll make you feel better, though it will. He argues theologically. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Gratitude isn't a bonus feature for people with easy lives. It's a command, and it's rooted in the fact that God is always good, always working, and always worth thanking.
Practicing thanks in a hard season may be the most defiant thing a believer does. It's a declaration that God is bigger than the thing in front of you.
And over time it rewires how you see your own life. You start noticing what discouragement had been hiding: the daily mercies, the small provisions, the quiet grace God has been scattering across your path the whole time you were looking somewhere else.
Start writing down three specific things each morning, and make one of them something inside your current struggle. You can wait until you feel thankful, or you can start the discipline today and let the feeling catch up. It usually does.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I choose gratitude today, and I'm choosing it before I feel it. Not because everything is easy, but because You are always good. Open my eyes to the mercies I've been walking past. Teach me to give thanks in this season and not just after it. Make a grateful heart normal in me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
November is a few days out, and with it comes a whole month of talking about gratitude. Let's get a head start, and let's start with something that will save you a lot of frustration: gratitude is a discipline before it's a feeling.
That distinction matters. Paul doesn't say give thanks when you feel thankful. Nobody would need to be told that. He says give thanks in everything. In the waiting. In the pain. In the season that turned out nothing like you planned.
Read that preposition carefully, because it's not the one we usually assume. He says in everything, not for everything. You are not asked to thank God for the cancer, the divorce, or the funeral. You're asked to find something to thank Him for while you're in it. That's a very different assignment, and it's one you can actually do today.
And notice Paul doesn't argue for it on the grounds that it'll make you feel better, though it will. He argues theologically. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Gratitude isn't a bonus feature for people with easy lives. It's a command, and it's rooted in the fact that God is always good, always working, and always worth thanking.
Practicing thanks in a hard season may be the most defiant thing a believer does. It's a declaration that God is bigger than the thing in front of you.
And over time it rewires how you see your own life. You start noticing what discouragement had been hiding: the daily mercies, the small provisions, the quiet grace God has been scattering across your path the whole time you were looking somewhere else.
Start writing down three specific things each morning, and make one of them something inside your current struggle. You can wait until you feel thankful, or you can start the discipline today and let the feeling catch up. It usually does.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I choose gratitude today, and I'm choosing it before I feel it. Not because everything is easy, but because You are always good. Open my eyes to the mercies I've been walking past. Teach me to give thanks in this season and not just after it. Make a grateful heart normal in me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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