Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks always for all things, unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  This is a pretty tall order.  Give thanks always?  In all things?  How is that possible?   What about when things don’t seem like they are going right?  What about…?  We can always find an excuse not to be thankful.  Throughout the Word we see commands to give thanks and praise to the Lord.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we see almost the exact same command, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  Again, how does this seem possible?

Giving thanks is a choice.  We can either sit around and look at all the negative things that are going on, or we can trust in the Word and thank God for what He has already done for us.

When I was in high school, I got a hair line fracture in my hip playing sports.  And because of this fracture, I suffered with a pinched sciatic nerve for years.  There were times that I was in such severe pain from the top of my hip running all the way down to my feet.  When I was in college, there were times that I would use a cane.  I was part of the theatre department and was able to borrow props, so when I would use the cane, my friends thought I was just working on a character for my next play.  There were times that I would be going up a flight of stairs and all strength would leave my leg and I would fall onto the stairs.  This was something that really plagued me, but I refused to accept this as “normal” for the rest of my life.  I believed God would heal me.  I made a decision to rely on the Word of God.  I stopped talking about the problem and started being thankful.  You might ask, “What would you have to be thankful about?”  I started thanking God for the pain that I was feeling.  Now, don’t run and make a doctrine out of this, I know how that sounds.  That sounds crazy.  Let me explain what I mean.  I knew that Jesus had healed me.  He healed me at the cross nearly 2000 years ago.  So I decided to thank God that I had this pain, to remind me of what I was healed from.  I decided not to give any more credit to the devil for what he was trying to make a part of my life.  I decided to give glory to God for reminding me that I was healed!

Now don’t take this out of context: God did not give me the pain.  He did not give me the pinched nerve.  He didn’t give me any of it.  He did give me healing!  He did give me the right to divine health, and I stood on that.  Every time I felt pain, I started thanking God for His healing power working in my body.  The Bible says that the Lord inhabits the praise of His people.  I decided, I made the choice to praise God!  Where God is, there is no pain, no grief, no sorrow, no lack of any kind.  I knew that if I praised God, then He would be there, and where He is, there is no such thing as a pinched nerve.  Hallelujah!  I didn’t realize at the time that I was giving thanks in all things, but I was.

2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  I decided not to look at what I could see with my physical eyes.  I decided to look at things with my eyes of faith.  All I saw was me living pain free, walking with ease.  I saw it, and I decided to thank God for it, while it was still unseen.  I made a quality decision not to back down from it, too!  There was no other way this was going to turn out.  Every single time I felt pain, I immediately went into thanking God for my healing and praising Him for what He has done for me.

We can do this in any situation.  We can decide to look at the Word and see what God has for us and thank Him for it.  Yes, thank Him for things that we don’t even see yet.  We as believers are not moved by what we see or feel, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  We stand on His Word, not by the things around us that are temporary.  Those things are subject to change.  The Word of God does not change!  Healing, restoration, provision does not change!  Why?  Because God supplies all of these things in His Word.

So consider next time when a trial or tribulations comes to attack you.  Are you staying in thanksgiving?  Or are you deciding to be unthankful?  We as believers have to develop lifestyles of thanksgiving.  And thank Him for everything and in all things.  PTL.