Remain thankful always

Greetings:

When the waves of strife drive our faces into the dirt, we must not give up, lose heart, or stop trusting God.

That's the time to get up, dust off and be thankful.

The Apostle Paul didn’t learn contentment overnight, but it was over time through a great deal of suffering that he learned not to overlook the basic, small provisions of God, but to be thankful for them.  With mere food and covering, he could be content. 

Sometimes, God allows suffering to help us be mindful of all of the many smaller graces that He has given us in our lives.  It is easy to overlook things and take them for granted.  We should be thankful to God for them, as insignificant as they might seem.  Just comparing our life to somebody who is in a worse state does not necessarily make us feel better.  But if we thank God that we have the things that we realize that others might not be so fortunate to have, then our thanksgiving can change our perspective and bring us contentment. 

We need to maintain Paul’s attitude of thankfulness for all things and in even the most dire and unfair of circumstances.  We need to make a point of it to thank God for the blessings that He gives us each and every day. 

We ought to wake up every morning and our first thoughts ought to be 'Thank you, Lord'.

We ought to yell it loud so the devil himself can hear our commitment and love for God.

One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to refuse to or neglect to give God thanks after experiencing his goodness and seeing his power manifested on our behalf. If we fail to acknowledge God,  we can begin to feel proud and self-sufficient, which is a dangerous road to walk on.

Rather, we need to acknowledge God’s provision in everything as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 so that we can stay on the straight and narrow path. 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Amplified Bible) we read, “Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thank

ful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].”

This verse says that it’s God’s will for everyone who believes in Jesus to be thankful. There are some things that happen in our lives that we are truly thankful for. But some things that happen are really difficult.  Let’s look really closely at the verse. Some might think that this verse says to be thankful FOR all of our circumstances. But the verse actually says to be thankful in all circumstances. The original Hebrew word for 'in' that is used here means 'in the middle of' or 'during'.

In other words, no matter what is happening in our life, we can be thankful.

Be blessed.