-Strength for Today- "“In Everything Give Thanks.” -1 Thessalonians 5: 18.
Giving thanks is easy when blessings are flowing around us. But when we’re in a valley, facing challenging trials, it can be difficult to give thanks. I say this because “no man in this world lives strictly on a mountain top. So, a “mountaintop mentality” shouldn’t be the focus of our thankfulness. But knowing wherever we’re positioned in life, or whatever we’re facing, God has or is allowing it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks: for it is the will of God in Christ Jesus concertizing you.” In every event, Christians are to give thanks to God for the good He can bring out of any event, even if it’s unpleasant. The constant attitude of prayer mentioned in verse 17 is a reminder that Christians are to maintain the “spirit of thankfulness,” even in the face of adversity.
The thought here is “attitudinal,” in that “giving thanks” should rise to the top of our conscious mind when thinking about all that God, in Christ Jesus have done for us. Because when convicted by the Spirit of God, we’re being “evoked” with the “practicality” of God. That is to say His plan isn’t established on ““human suppositions,” but on His love, and “in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Adam’s disobedience, (Genesis 3:6), caused life on earth to be filled with difficult situations - Romans 5:12. For that cause, “satanic driven disobedience” has been at the entry of the human mind, “as a robber and thief,” making it difficult to say thanks, when you’re faced with troubling times. Troubling times, we need to know builds your faith in God. Without faith, we can’t please God. Faith is a spiritual mechanism that’ll keeps your mind clear of “deception” and “worry,” and will draw you closer to God.
I don’t know what you’re facing right now. Likewise, you don’t know the challenges I’m facing, of which daily I have to “praise, and “thank” God for His faithfulness. The Apostle Paul's ability of knowing how to give thanks, and live skillfully on “little” or in “flourishing conditions,” doesn’t mean that he was a “spiritual superman.” But in his various, “everchanging circumstances,” because of Christ Jesus, God gave him the strength to be “thankful and content” - Philippians 4:11-13. The psalmist said, “I’ve been young, but am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants forsaken” - Psalm 37: 25.
God’s Word is saying to us, even in the midst of this “germ-warfare,” “stop panicking, and worrying,” but rather “in all things give thanks.” Because this moment, in this situation, “this is His will in Christ Jesus concerning you and me!”
Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD