We Always Have Things to be Thankful For (TMF:476)

Monday, August 22, 2016
Peace to Live By: We Always Have Things to be Thankful For (TMF:476) - Daniel Litton
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       The Apostle Paul told us, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, ESV). What this means is that no matter what happens in our lives, we always have things to be thankful for. This verse is not saying necessarily that we should thank God for bad things that come into our lives. How are you to be thankful when your brother dies in war? How are to be thankful when your child dies of cancer? How can a person be thankful when a loved one is killed in a car crash? A person shouldn’t thank God that a loved one has been killed, for instance—that’s sick. Now, their may be good brought about by the person’s unexpected death, but it’s not something to be thankful for. We can be thankful the person is in Heaven with Jesus, but we shouldn’t be thankful that they got killed. It is easy to be thankful when things are going good, but not so much when things are going bad. Some people think that in life there is no one to thank for the things in their lives because they believe they are responsible for their successes. These people think they are in control of their lives. But, if we stop and think about this for a second, we should realize that this is really foolishness. Bad things can happen to anybody, no matter who you are. And these people would probably also throw ‘luck’ into the equation and just blindly hope bad things don’t happen to them. After all, this is what most unbelievers do, right?