Thank God in Every Circumstance

TheInsurance Journal claims some cities are safer than others fromnatural disasters. Of the 50 largest US metro areas, Oklahoma City OK, AustinTX, and Miami FL are the riskiest, with Miami being the worst. Sacramento CA,Salt Lake City UT, and Portland OR are the safest, with Portland being thebest. NYC is somewhere in the middle.

If you’re like me, when youmoved to NYC (or wherever you live), you considered a number of factors, butthe risk of natural disasters wasn’t one of them. Otherwise, we’d all be livingin Oregon! (I actually lived there for a summer as an undergrad church intern.)

Why? Perhaps because the riskof natural disaster may not have occurred to you. Or perhaps you’ve accepted,like most people, that problems will come. If not a natural disaster, thensomething else.

Like most people, you try to avoid big problems.

You watch your health, avoid scams, and choose friends carefully. Yet you know that some things are out of your control.

After all, life has two sides,the good times and the bad. We thank God for the good times and hope formore. But what about the bad? Crushing debt. Car accidents. Unexpected deaths.Losing your job. Dysfunctional relationships. Identity theft. Shatteredexpectations. Flooded basements. Chronic health conditions and shocking diagnoses.

When we pray on Thanksgiving Day,we thank God for the good things of life – family, friends, and the feastbefore us. But do we thank him for the bad things, too? Should we?

When you give thanks to God you uncover his greatness and goodness. That’s why we should thank him and bless him for the food we eat, and that’s why we should pray thanks and say thanks for the Christians in our lives. But what about the problems?

Sometimes we complain aboutour problems, but that’s no good. So we usually accept them on one hand or runaway from them on the other. But these responses (complain, tolerate, or run)hide God. They do nothing to uncover his greatness and goodness. As a result,we hide God from those who are spiritual blind around us (Rom 1:21).

There’s a fourth option - thankfully. You should face problems thankfully. A thankful approach transforms your problems into precious opportunities to uncover the greatness and goodness of God.

A thankful approach transforms your problems into precious opportunities to uncover the greatness and goodness of God.

Paul once traveled to a city called Thessalonica. (Acts 17:1-10)

This is still a city in Greece today. After teaching for a few weeks, many believed on Christ, but a mob attacked the home where Paul was staying. They dragged the homeowner and other new Christians to court to litigate them. As a result, the believers sent Paul away from the city to safety.

• He wanted to visit themagain but could not (1 Thess 2:18).
• He worried that theywould succumb to the pressures of their city (1 Thess 3:18).
• Thessalonica was not aneasy place to be a Christian (1 Thess 1:6; 2:14).

Know the feeling? Finding ithard to be a thankful, thriving Christian where you’re living?

Paul thanked God for theChristians in Thessalonica (1 Thess 1:2), but some had become lazy,discouraged, and weak, and some were being treated badly (1 Thess 5:14-15).

At the end of the letter, he urged them to be thankful like him despite their challenging circumstances (1 Thess 5:18). He said, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” What does this mean?

Giving thanks in circumstance is the will of God.

Whatever it means, it was “thewill of God” for them. Earlier in the letter, Paul said it was “the will ofGod” for them to distance themselves from wrong sexual behavior (1 Thess 4:3).Then he said it was also “the will of God” for them to be thankful in everything.

So God wants both these thingsto happen in your life, but why? Since Jesus has identified with you as Savior,becoming guilty for your sins in a negative sense, so you should identify withhim by living your life like him in a good and positive sense.

Depend on Jesus for the wisdomand strength you need to stop committing sexual sins and for the grace you needto be thankful in difficult times. Both are big challenges!

“Giving thanks” means toacknowledge and appreciate the greatness and goodness of God. It’s always easy todo this for your food, and sometimes easy to do for the Christians in your life,but it’s not always easy to do with your problems.

The little phrase “ineverything” is important. “Everything” means “all” and refers to everycircumstance in your life, even the unpleasant or painful ones.

“In” means “in the midst of” (or something like that). It does not mean “for.” It would make no sense at all to be thankful for bad things. Instead, you should be thankful for the opportunity to experience bad things. Why? Because the bad and difficult experiences of life are opportunities to uncover the greatness and goodness of God.

Let's talk about the concert of life.

In a large concert, there are multiple stages. Some are smaller than others and feature lesser known performers. But the main stage, which is the largest, features the most famous performers.

In the concert of life, your problems are the main stage.

In the concert of life, yourproblems are the main stage. Thanking God for your food and for the Christiansin your life happens on smaller stages (though important). But thanking God foryour problems happens on the main stage.

Yet for whatever reason, thisis the stage that we most frequently run from. When the lights dim and spotlightshines down on this stage, we’re often hiding behind the curtain or shakingwith stage fright. But where’s the glory of God in that?

The greatest problems of life give us the brightest opportunity to uncover the greatness and goodness of God, and this begins by thanking him for the opportunity in the first place.

The greatest problems of life give us the brightest opportunity to uncover the greatness and goodness of God

Let's consider four Bible examples of people who uncovered the greatness and goodness of God through their problems.

In each of these cases, a person who followed God experienced some major problems, but they learned to shine the spotlight on God. For this, I give them each a 5-star rating.

Job lost everything.

Job lived thousands of years ago. An entire book in the OT is written about his experience. He was a good man with a good relationship with God. He was married, had ten children, and was a successful businessman who had become insanely wealthy (Job 1:1-3). Then all in one day he lost everything to natural disasters and theft (Job 1:13-19). He even lost his health (Job 2:1-8), so his wife encouraged him to commit suicide (Job 2:9). His problem? He lost everything.

In these tragic moments, Jobchose “blessed God” and did not complain (1:21). Unknown to him, he also showedSatan and the angelic world his close relationship with God. In the end, aftera long series of intense conversations with his so-called friends, hediscovered in an even bigger way the greatness and goodness of God. What’smore, God gave him ten more children and more wealth than ever, and he lived tosee his great, great grandchildren.

If Job had never had these problems, he never would have learned such amazing lessons about God and would never have shown to Satan the depth of his loyalty to God.

Joseph was hated, falsely accused, and forgotten.

Joseph grew up in a difficult home (Gen 37-50). His problem? He was hated, falsely accused, and forgotten. His father, Jacob, had two wives and two unofficial wives and was a very old man, and Joseph’s mother was dead. He also had ten older stepbrothers who hated him so much they sold him into slavery in a far away land, in Egypt. There he was falsely accused of sexual misconduct and landed in prison for years. An inmate who was released promised to help him go free but forgot him instead.

After fifteen difficult years,Pharaoh promoted him to second in command over the entire country. In thatrole, he protected the lives of many people (thousands, maybe millions) from a severe,seven-year famine. When he had opportunity to take revenge on his brothers, hesaid, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bringit about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen 50:19-20).

If Joseph had never had these problems, he never would have helped so many people.

Peter was confused and disappointed.

Peter was a blue-collar fisherman who followed Jesus for three years. He had some amazing experiences (like walking on water), but he also had some run-ins with the Lord, arguing with him about theology and future plans. On the day that Jesus died, he cussed and swore to protect his own life, denying that he ever knew Jesus. Then he locked himself away and decided to go back to fishing. His problem? He was confused and disappointed.

What looked like a dark periodin Peter’s life turned out to his advantage. Before this all happened, Jesussaid, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I haveprayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me,strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). Just as Satan wanted to take outJob, he also wanted to take out Peter. But Peter came through this experiencein the end and was able to strengthen and establish the faith of the otherdisciples as a result.

If Peter had never had these problems, he never would have been able to provide the spiritual leadership and understanding that his Christian friends needed.

Paul had a chronic physical health condition.

Paul was a faithful leader in the early church, yet he himself suffered greatly. His problem? Well, he had lots of them. One of them was a chronic physical health condition. He called it a “thorn in the flesh” and said that Satan was using it to “knock him around” spiritually (2 Cor 12:7). He even pleaded with God three times for healing, but God refused.

Through this painful anduncomfortable health problem, Paul discovered that God wanted him to depend onhis supernatural grace (his divine goodness) for strength to endure hisphysical suffering. In fact, he even learned to find delight and pleasure inall kinds of health problems, insults and disasters, financial and materialneeds, persecution, and other very troubling circumstances “for Christ’s sake”(2 Cor 12:7-10).

If Paul had never suffered this problem (and so many other ones), he never would have shown us how to handle our own suffering for God’s eternal glory. We’d think that healing was the only way.

What about you?

Are you giving thanks to God in every circumstance? Are you embracing all the bad times in your life and the difficult experiences as opportunities to shine the spotlight on the greatness and goodness of God?

Are you stepping out onto thestage of your problems with thankfulness to uncover to all who see your lifethe greatness and goodness of God?

1. ShowSatan and other spiritual beings the strength of your trust in God.
2. RevealGod’s greatness and goodness to unbelieving family, friends, and relatives.
3. Gaina deeper personal understanding of God’s character and ways.
4. Receivea better outcome in the end than what you lost in the first place.
5. Provideleadership and help to other Christians in your life, both in material and spiritualways, as a result of how you handled your own problems.
6. Discoverhow to experience God’s grace and strength amid your suffering.

Which is the more incrediblestory? The boy who grew up in Boston to wealthy parents who are politicians,attended elite schools, graduated from Yale, and earned an honorary position athis alma mater? Or the girl who grew up in the slums of Haiti without a father,learned to read on her own at night after working all day in the fields, earnedher way into Johns Hopkins University, and received the Nobel Prize?

We all want the easy path with fewer problems, but where’s the greatness and goodness of God in that? When you give thanks to God in all the difficulties you go through, you uncover his greatness and goodness through the opportunities your suffering provides.

We all want the easy path with fewer problems, but where’s the greatness and goodness of God in that?

More than any other thing, thebad times and difficult experiences of your life give you a platform and stagelike no other to shine the spotlight on God through thanksgiving. Sadly, weoften run from the stage or act out in such a way that God seems bad, cruel, orunloving to those who see us. Let’s give God thanks instead in everycircumstance so that we can uncover the greatness and goodness of God to awatching world.

• What problems are you going through right now?
• Does your thankful approach get a 3, 4, or 5-star rating ... or worse?
• How are you doing on that stage?
• Are you giving thanks to God there?
• Is your thankful approach shining the spotlight on God’s greatness and goodness to those who know and see your suffering?

Imagine a church where everymember embraced every problem for the glory of God, like one grand concert for allto see. We don’t complain, run, or simply accept what happens, but we givethanks to God and uncover his greatness and goodness. If we do this, our Godwould become so much more visible to people in our metro area who are blind tohis reality. And best of all – the tickets are free.