Life comes at you fast, doesn’t it? You’re chugging along, trying to juggle all the different areas of your life, and then BOOM, out of nowhere, life pulls the rug out from under you and all those carefully managed balls come crashing down on top of you. And there you sit, in the middle of your dreams and plans, struggling to not only figure out what happened but just how you’re going to rebuild your life.
And then someone comes along, and spouts off 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances” before they smugly turn away. Now, you’re not only trying to come to terms with your new reality, but you also have the guilt of not being thankful that this tragedy has befallen you.
Yeah. I’ve been there. It sucks.
I’ve gone through times when my life didn’t resemble anything that I thought God would want for me. Sometimes it was my fault. Sometimes it wasn’t. But at all times, I labored under the false assumption that I was to give thanks for everything. Not just the good stuff, but all the evil that the world threw at me. I was supposed to thank God for allowing me to suffer.
Crazy, right? I mean, when you lay it out like that, it sounds ridiculous. That’s because it is.
Paul wasn’t telling me, as a Christian, that I am required to thank God for all the bad stuff that happens to me. No. Evil doesn’t come from God, so why should I thank God for it? It doesn’t make sense!
What I should be thankful for is that when evil crashes down my door and tries to take my life captive, I can thank God that God is still with me. His presence never leaves me alone to face the challenges life throws at me. I am not thankful for evil, but I am so thankful that God will use the evil to accomplish great things in my life.
You see, evil doesn’t come from God, and there’s no reason to expect God to expect you, to thank Him for it. No. We are not called to thank God for all circumstances, but we are called to thank God in all circumstances.
There’s a difference, and your Christian life depends on learning it.