TODAY IS…

the perfect day to remember to be thankful in any circumstance.

“…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV

Our initial response to Paul’s teaching may be that it is sometimes difficult to be thankful in every circumstance that we may find ourselves in, especially the extremely negative ones. It is important to note that Paul was not teaching us that we should be thankful for bad things that happen to us, but in those things, and there is a big difference between those two words.

God certainly does not expect us to be thankful for misfortunes that occur in our lives or for tragedies that bring us sorrow. Nor does He expect us to be thankful for negative circumstances that can be created as a result of situations in which we have succumbed to temptation or evil thoughts or actions.

What Paul was teaching was that we need to be thankful in any circumstance, for God is with us at all times. Armed with this knowledge, whether a negative circumstance in our lives is a natural occurrence or the result of our own thoughtless behavior, we can be thankful that God is there to help us.

We only need to reach out to Him in prayer and ask.

He will not always make a bad situation go away. But with trust in the Lord, we will find that no matter what our circumstances may be, something good can be learned from them or gotten out of them.

When our lives cause us to be unhappy for our circumstances, we need to turn to God and be happy in our circumstances.

There is an old saying that goes, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

Today is the perfect day to be thankful to God and ask Him to help you build a lemonade stand.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson