Blake Allen, Student and Outreach Minister, LHBC
1 Thessalonians 5:18
18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I’ll be honest, it’s mainly because I get to chow down on delicious food. But this year it was a little different. The food was great but the atmosphere was different this year. We stayed in the area instead of traveling back to visit family. The pie I was baking did not turn out as expected. The kids were extra wild. On top of that, we almost had an incident related to our car.
Due to those circumstances, it was hard to focus on what mattered most about Thanksgiving–giving thanks. This got me thinking about how often our circumstances change our attitudes and feelings. Take it even further, how often does our circumstances affect our praise? If we are honest, it’s hard to be thankful in all circumstances.
But this is exactly what Paul calls us to do in this verse. I don’t know how your Thanksgiving was this year. Maybe it looked a little different than normal due to life, covid, circumstances, etc. But in all circumstances we can find ways to be thankful. So for me, I began to reflect on all the blessings God has given me. I had a family, a place to go Thanksgiving day, food to eat, clothes on my back, a house that we get to host people in each week, salvation in Christ, all the people we got to deliver food to at our Turkey Blessing event, etc.
God’s will for you and I is to trust Him in every season of life. And when it gets difficult we need to reflect on all that God has already done. He is calling us to trust and follow Him on His terms not ours. And He reminds us in Matthew 6:33, “seek first the kingdom of and live righteously, and He will provide all we need.”
Trust and believe He is with you. And in all circumstances, give thanks for this is the will of God.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, thank you for all you’ve done. You are so good to us even when we don’t deserve it. Help us to walk in faithfulness in every season of life and be thankful at all times. Amen.
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
2 Samuel 7:22– 22
Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.