Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV)
Just slow down and think about what the apostle Paul taught as he came to the end of his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians. This is God’s will in Christ for you: always rejoicing, constantly praying, and giving thanks in all circumstances. But let the end of this direction rest on you for a moment. Give thanks in ALL circumstances. This is a week that our country has set aside as a time for thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is something that we think about when it comes to the good things we presently have or are experiencing in our lives. But I want us to consider how Paul does not say to give thanks when things are going well. Paul does not say that give thanks when you see God’s blessings in your life. Paul does not say to give thanks when you receive answered prayers. Paul would say yes to those reasons to give thanks. But notice that Paul says to give thanks in every circumstance.
Now giving thanks in all circumstances is hard enough when things in life are going wrong. We just recently had one of those months in life where the saying, “When it rains, it pours” really came to life. Our van air conditioning broke. We paid quite a bit of money only have it break again a couple days later. Making the long story short was that over a series of a couple of weeks every piece of the air conditioning unit in the van had to be replaced. No sooner did we get the van repaired that our air conditioning in our house went out. The unit was 22 years old and it finally gave up its life requiring a complete replacement of inside and outside units. So while it feels like everything in our life is breaking, Paul is saying to give thanks in all circumstances.
But what about when things go really wrong? We experience diseases, syndromes, and sicknesses. We go through brokenness, depression, and divorce. We experience death and the death of our loved ones. We can go through extreme suffering and pain. But Paul still says to give thanks in all circumstances. Paul, how am I supposed to give thanks when life is going wrong? How am I supposed to be thankful when I feel like my life is falling apart? How can I give thanks today when I have lost so much or am hurting so badly? Now we know that Paul is speaking from experience. We know he did not have an easy life as a Christian. We know that he was persecuted. We know that he was shipwrecked. We know he was imprisoned. We know that he was betrayed. We know that he was abandoned by his friends. We know that he was stoned nearly to death. But even still the apostle Paul proclaims to give thanks in all circumstances. In our lesson today I am going to give you four challenges for your faith and three changes in our way of thinking to help us to be thankful in all circumstances.
Changing Our Thoughts
Let’s start with the most important reason why we must be thankful in all circumstances. The apostle Paul tells us why. It is God’s will for your life as you live for Jesus to be thankful. Please hear this point. It is God’s plan for your life to be thankful in every circumstance. We are expected to be thankful people. Now it is not hard to reach for the reasoning for why we are to be thankful in all circumstances. It is God’s will to be thankful because everything we are and everything we have is from God. This is a key point that we can so easily forget. Everything we are and everything we have is from God. Listen to how Paul speaks about the authority of God over all things.
24 “The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist….” (Acts 17:24-28 NASB)
It is God’s will for us to be thankful because he made everything. He made us and it is because of God that we live, move, and exist.
Now this leads to the second key way of thinking. Our problems are from God’s blessings. Now I know this sounds backward and wrong. But let me illustrate this point and then I will show it to you in the scriptures. My problems with my van air conditioning are because God blessed me to have a van. My problems with my house air conditioning is because God has blessed me to have a house. I can be thankful when things are breaking because God gave me this van for the last 11 years. Now let me make this point be a little harder. If I have family problems, it is because God has blessed me with a family. If I have work problems it is because God has blessed me with a job. If I suffer loss it is because God gave me something to enjoy and now it is taken away. Now let me show you this in the scriptures. Let me draw your attention to Job. Job lost all of his possessions and all of his children were killed. Listen to what Job did and said:
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:20-22 ESV)
Job worshiped. How could he do that? Listen to what he said. Job said that he started with nothing and he ends with nothing. Everything we have has been given to us by God. Job sees that his problems have come because of God’s blessings. God gave me wealth but now it is gone. That is okay because I started with nothing and everything is a blessing from God. God gave Job ten children and now they are dead. That is okay because I started with nothing and the time I was given with those children is a blessing from God. You see that Job has the right way of thinking. I can be thankful in the hard times and in the times of suffering and loss because I am looking not at what I lost but what I was able to enjoy. Do you have good health? Then be thankful. Here is an illustration of how to do this. If you do not have good health, be thankful that you did and be thankful that you are still alive to struggle with the health you have. You see how Job is showing us to turn the way we think about what we are going through. Our problems are from God’s blessings. We are losing something that we had and hoped for but this is from God’s hand.
The third reason thanksgiving is so important is because a lack of thanksgiving is self-destructive. We not only miss out on the power of thanksgiving but also fail to understand the destruction we inflict on ourselves when we are not thankful. Where do the scriptures say this? The apostle Paul said it to the Roman Christians.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:20-21 ESV)
Did you hear what Paul says happens to us when we do not honor God or give thanks to him? Paul says that the result of our lack of thanksgiving is that we are will become futile and worthless in our thinking. Ungrateful hearts leads to broken thinking. Ingratitude leads to worthless thinking and darkened, foolish hearts. Who would think that thanksgiving would be so important? Paul says that if we are not thankful and we do not look at what we have the way Job did, then we are ruining our lives to the point of self-destruction. I do not have time in this lesson to finish Romans 1. But if you scan your eyes down the page to the rest of chapter 1 you will see a lack of thanksgiving leads to every evil and destructive behavior in the world (cf. Romans 1:28-31). We wonder how people become foolish, faithless, ruthless, heartless, and full of evil and maliciousness. Paul says the starting point is a lack of thanksgiving to God. Ingratitude is self-destructive. So those are the three reasons we need to change our way of thinking to be grateful people.
What Paul is teaching us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 is to be thankful through our circumstances. Paul says that we are to be thankful in everything. This means that I can find the path of thanksgiving even through the pain and the hurt and the loss. Thanksgiving in all circumstances must be possible since we are told to do this. So I want to end the lesson with four spiritual challenges. Each challenge will increase with difficulty.
Four Challenges for Thankful Living
First, if my life is blessed, will I be thankful? It says a lot about our spiritual condition if we are going through relatively good times and blessing that we are unable to be thankful. It says a lot about our spiritual situation if we find reasons to complain in the midst of blessings and good times. You really need to be concerned if you find a reason to complain when life is good. Sure, life could be better. Life could always be better. But if all I want to do is focus on my problems and my pains then your soul is in grave jeopardy.
Second, if I lose it all, can I still be thankful? How are we supposed to be thankful? We can be thankful by seeing that we had something from God in the first place that is now lost. If it breaks, it is because God originally gave it to me. If it is lost, it is because God originally gave it to me. Job reminds us that that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But either way, God is to be glorified and blessed.
Third, if life does not go the way I want, can I still be thankful? We all have a vision of how we expect our lives to God. I dare say that no one has a life that went exactly as they planned. For many, their lives are not even close to what they envisioned or planned. But can you still be thankful anyway? Who said life is supposed to go the way we want? We are not in charge. Remember what Paul preached in Acts 17. God is in the control over all the creation and it is because of him that we live, move, and exist. So God has you here right now. Are you going to accept that? Are you going to be thankful that God has you right here in your life right now?
Finally, can I accept the good from God and not the trouble also? Job’s wife tells Job that he should quit God when we lost everything. Job lost his wealth. Job lost his children. Job lost his health. Job lost his friends. So Job’s wife tells Job that he should just curse God and die. Just quit. Just give up. Just throw it all away. But Job tells his wife that this is foolish thinking (Job 2:10). That is foolish talk! Now listen to what Job says.
“Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” (Job 2:10 CSB)
Can I accept the good from God’s hand but not also accept the adversity from God’s hand? Can I thank my way through the circumstance because I see God at work and all that he has done for me?