Hopefully, if you are reading this you are a grateful person. God requires a Christian to be grateful. He commands us to be thankful in I Thessalonians 5:18 for everything! This would include things we feel are good and bad.
I Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Keeping an attitude of gratitude will help us stay focused on God. Our journey through this life will take on greater meaning and purpose as we feel His presence with us throughout the day. This helps us to maintain an attitude of prayer, a connection that we are always mindful of, regardless of our circumstances. As a human being, prone to the sin of selfishness, I would rather dismiss the bad things in my life and focus on the good, or rather what I deemed as good. You know, the things that bring joy, peace, comfort, those things that make us feel good, where all seems right with the world. However, that is not what God said. He said to be thankful for all things.
It’s easy to ignore the things that irritate us and move on to thank God for what we like in our life. However, when we do that, we miss the greatest opportunity as Christians to grow to be like Jesus. He loves us enough to allow us to go through some hard things because the result will be better for us. It is for our good to suffer for wrongdoing. It will be a reminder to not repeat the wrong. One of the greatest truths we can learn is that there are consequences for our actions. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he suffered for his sin. But it was the suffering that drew him closer to God and made him a great king.
It is for our good to suffer for righteousness’s sake. I Peter 3:14 teaches us that we will be “happy.” That is not happiness as we think of it. The word happy here means blessed, or fully satisfied in Christ. There is no positive enjoyment in suffering, but there is a blessed feeling when we defend the faith and stand up for Christ. This blessed feeling allows us to identify greater with Christ when we suffer for His sake. No one ever suffered as He did.
Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
I Peter 3:14 “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;”
We are to be grateful for everything in our lives. Gratitude will help us to see things clearly. When we express gratitude for the things that are not pleasing to us it helps us to understand God’s purpose in refining us. He is seeking to make us like His Son, as mentioned in Romans 8:29. From the day we are saved until the day we die we are to continue a journey to be like Jesus.
Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Praying and thanking God for everything He has allowed in our lives will help us to identify with Christ as the Godman. When He was in the garden, facing His death on the cross, He agonized over what He knew was coming. The flesh wanted to avoid the physical pain, but most of all He wanted to avoid the pain of separation from His Father. When all our sin was placed on Him His own Father turned away from Him. It was the only time they were ever separated. Jesus, being God in the flesh, knew everything that was going to take place, yet His cry to the Father in Luke 22:42 was “not my will, by thine.”
Luke 22:42 “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.”
Being grateful for everything, keeping and nurturing that attitude will bring us to the foot of the cross every time. It will mold us, it will make God’s purpose clearer, and it will allow our testimony of Christ to have a greater impact on others. When we go through bad things, and our focus is still praising God, others notice. When things are going great, we understand that all that we have is a gift and it is to be used for a testimony of God’s goodness, others notice. Others notice when God gets all the glory in the good and the bad! Gratitude always leads us to Jesus!
