“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
I have always struggled with this verse, as I took it to mean that I’m supposed to thank God for every circumstance that comes and that just doesn’t feel like something I can do and still be honest and genuine with Him.
But then, God opened my eyes to a truth in this verse that I was missing.
These verses do not say give thanks for all circumstances.
It says give thanks in all circumstances.
This passage doesn’t necessarily mean to be thankful for every situation that comes.
But, instead to bring thankfulness into every situation that comes.
A few weeks ago, I was having regular contractions (too early in pregnancy) and ended up heading to the hospital to get checked out. It was super inconvenient timing as we had our small group over at our house already.
But, having had Ace early, I knew it would be irresponsible of me to just keep waiting out what could lead to a real issue for me and the baby.
So I whispered to my husband I was going to head out and intended to sneak out while our small group continued on in our living room.
But my loving husband told me to sit down and let everyone know what was going on.
Reluctantly I did. And their immediate response was to pray over me before I left.
And they checked up on me through the night.
And others asked how I was doing and if our family needed anything when they found out what was happening.
I would much rather have not had contractions early in pregnancy and that none of this had ever been an issue.
It’s not necessarily a situation that I was thankful to walk through.
But, after things had settled down, God let me see something really special that He had done through it.
Through this experience, God reminded me of all these people He’s surrounded me and my family with who love and care about us and want to support and care for us however they can.
All of a sudden a scary, inconvenient situation became a tool He used to remind me of how loved and blessed I am by Him and by those around me.
And thankfulness has flooded into this inconvenient situation that I still would have rathered had not happened.
He showed me how even if I’m in circumstances that I do not like, I can bring thankfulness into any situation, such as this one.
Through our prayers, we can learn to bring thankfulness into any situation because God promises He is always going to be with us wherever we go.
So we will always be able to find Him working somehow.
In Luke 1, Mary writes a song of praise to God after her visit with Elizabeth.
She, too, and much more so, was in a really difficult situation that God had blessed her with. As a young, unmarried woman, she was chosen to be pregnant with the Son of God. This was an enormous blessing, but one that also came with a lot of hardship and unknowns.
It could very well have put her in a dangerous, life-threatening situation if Joseph were not persuaded by God’s messengers to continue to marry her.
Any dreams or plans she had of what starting a family of her own would look like were now changed.
All of a sudden she was pregnant and the entire purpose of her life shifted onto being the mother of the Son of God.
She must have known she was blessed from the beginning, but we’d be kidding ourselves if we thought this was an easy, smooth blessing to grasp.
However, after her initial greeting with her cousin Elizabeth, her response was this song of praise:
“And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” Luke 1:46-55 (ESV)
After Ace had been home from the NICU for a while, I distinctly remember a conversation with someone who told me Matt and I were blessed because we got to see God move and comfort us in ways that you only experience if you walk through something where you need that.
At first, I felt weird hearing that. Honestly, almost offended.
But the more I pondered on that, and the more I think about it today, the more I realize they were so right.
It’s typically in the circumstances we would never choose for ourselves that we see God in ways we never would without walking that path.
Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus! Blessed beyond blessed. Yet, this completely altered every part of her life. Even putting her in situational danger because she was a virgin and time after time from those who sought to harm her child.
And eventually enduring the heartbreak of watching her son die a brutal, undeserving death for the sake of the world.
Yet, in the midst of processing what she was walking into, she wrote this song of praise that we can learn so much from.
Can you look back on particularly difficult times in your life and see where God has been there?
If we can learn to bring thankfulness into our hardest circumstances, we can learn to bring thankfulness in every circumstance.
But this will take time and worthwhile practice. It does not come naturally to us when we are in the thick of walking a path we don’t want to walk.
When we take time to remember and thank God for all that He has done in really difficult situations we’ve walked through, it gives us confidence and strength to walk through whatever is to come no matter what, because we know He has been faithful and always will be.
Week Ten Challenge: Thinking of a time in your life that was particularly difficult, write your own “song of praise”, remembering and reflecting on, maybe for the first time, how God moved in that time. Ask God to show you how you can bring thankfulness into those situations and every situation as His Word calls us to do.
Use Mary’s song as inspiration.
Throughout it she reflects on who she is and how undeserving she is of all God’s done for her, how He’s faithfully showed up and come through for her, how He has been there and supported her, and how He has kept His promises in her life and the life of those around her.
Let’s take action to learn to bring thankfulness into our circumstances through our prayers, through our own songs of praise.
Father, teach us how to bring thankfulness into any circumstance, especially the painful and difficult ones. We want to magnify Your Name as we reflect on our own paths we’ve walked as You so much deserve.
From one of His children to another,
Christi