Give Thanks in All Circumstances
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
C.S. Lewis, in his book, "Letters to Children," describes an encounter he once had with a rabbit. Lewis wrote, “I am getting to be quite friends with an old Rabbit who lives in the Wood at Magdalen. I pick leaves off the trees for him because he can’t reach up to the branches and he eats them out of my hand. One day he stood up on his hind legs and put his front paws against me, he was so greedy. I wrote this about it:
A funny old man had a habit
Of giving a leaf to a rabbit.
At first it was shy
But then, by and by,
It got rude and would stand up to grab it.”
Evidently, even rabbits are prone to ingratitude! Of course, the opposite of ingratitude is gratitude or thankfulness. A great deal of research suggests a strong link between gratitude and happiness. The more thankful someone is, the happier they tend to be. The Bible also has a great deal to say on this subject. In 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5, Paul exhorts the church in Thessalonica to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Of course, being thankful “for” all circumstances is nearly impossible, for not all circumstances are necessarily good or beneficial. Yet, we can and should give thanks to God “in” all circumstances. Why? Because — Paul continues in the second half of verse 8 — “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Our spiritual growth entails aligning our hearts and minds to the will of God, and the more we do this, the more we see His hand in everything, the more grateful we become.
Dutch Priest Henri Nouwen (d. 1996) shared the following reflection on gratitude, “We are only truly grateful people when we can say 'thank you' to all that has brought us to the present moment. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.” (Henri J. M. Nouwen, "Bread for the Journey")
May the Lord give us all courage to see God’s guiding hand behind our circumstances. And, as we do this, let us give Him thanks for where Ge has brought us.
