"Lord, how can I thank you when I am single and want to be married?"
"Dear God, how can I ever be happy in this dead-end job?"
"God, how can I thank you for broken plumbing in our bathroom
when we don't have the money to make repairs?"
How can we have thankful, contented hearts when the circumstances in our lives
are not what we had planned and when they lie outside our control or power to change?
Let's look at our alternatives. If we are not thankful, we become bitter and angry with God:
He is not providing what we "rightfully" deserve. If we are not content, we become
rebellious and complaining: after all, He gives our friends everything they pray for-
why does He refuse us?
Underlying these complaints and questions lie two errors in our thinking:
that God is not trustworthy and He does not desire our good.
When we compare these conclusions with Scripture, we discover how wrong we are!
God's Word instructs us that God is sovereignly in control, providing for
and working out all circumstances in the lives of those who love Him
and whom He has called. He is intimately involved with us;
He works out His purposes through the events in our lives so that we may be
conformed to the image of His Son. We have further reason to praise Him.
The same God who formed the world in six days knows every hair on our
heads. The same God who chose a people for Himself before we were
born sent His Son to die on the cross to redeem us from our sins.
God's love for His people is not determined by the circumstances in our lives.
His love is steadfast. Our marital status, career or finances might fluctuate or
totally break apart. In spite of that, however, we can and must give Him thanks
for His love toward us. We must serve Him with unhesitating hearts.
"Thanksgiving For All Things"
A devotional by Carol L. Baldwin
Christian counselor and writer
Author of the book, "Friendship Counseling"
Devotional taken from
The Woman's NIV Devotional New Testament
With Psalms And Proverbs
(1990)
Zondervan Publishing
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