THANKFULNESS AND JOY NO MATTER WHAT!

November 30, 2023

Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (AMP)

At this very moment, I am battling sciatic pain, and Susie is battling lethargy due to anemia. We tend to think of thankfulness and rejoicing as feelings, but they are not. They are acts of obedience. We are so thankful that we have learned to be obedient even when we do not understand the reason God is letting us experience trials. We trust that the outcome will be to shape us more into the image of Christ. Our ability to give thanks and be joyful no matter what trial we are experiencing is bound up in our relationship with our heavenly Father. Thankfulness in and for our pain and difficult days is the result of knowing God loves us and chose us when we were unworthy because of sin. We wouldn’t even have the capacity to love Him unless He loved us first (1 John 4:19). We can give thanks to God when we pray, even when we are in pain, because He is faithful. We have trusted Jesus, surrendered our lives to Him; and thanksgiving is His will and destiny for us. What the Lord instructs us to do, He empowers us to do through the Holy Spirit within us. This is how we can cry out to God to relieve our pain yet in the same breath thank Him in and for that pain (Ephesians 5:19-20).

Do you find it a struggle to obey these verses? Are you in physical or emotional pain that seems too hard to bear? Do you have stress that is weighing you down? Thank the Lord anyway. Thank Him for how He will use those trials to mold you into the image of Christ and thank Him for the way He will answer your cries for help.

Lord, in obedience and by the power of Your Holy Spirit within us, we thank You for the phantom pain, the spasms, the sleep apnea, and all the challenges Cerebral Palsy gives Susan’s earth-suit. We thank You for the health problems Susie is battling and for the grace to overcome extreme lethargy to continue to work. We thank You for enabling both of us to continue to minister to others even while experiencing these difficulties.  Thank You for giving the calm assurance of joy deep within even during the times of greatest struggle.