Sometimes I will come across a passage that I have read numerous times and suddenly something lands on me that I had not really gotten my mind around before. Just recently I was studying in Ephesians and this verse just jumped all over me. It was one of those moments when a part of your mind says, “Man I wish that wasn’t in there!” The tough thing about the inherent and infallible Word of God is that we don’t get to pick the verses we will follow and believe and discard the others that we don’t like. This is all God’s Word and it all has authority over our lives.
Paul says this to the church at Ephesus:
Ephesians 5:20
“Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
You might see an innocuous verse there that really isn’t all that weighty however, stop and consider the magnitude of what Paul is saying there…give thanks always…I don’t feel like giving thanks always. There are times when life is hard and there are times when I want to complain about how hard life is and when I don’t even want to be around thankful people. However, Paul doesn’t leave any conditions on this statement he says give thanks always.
It gets worse! Paul says, give thanks always for everything! That is just too much! He has stopped preaching and gone to meddling! Paul is telling me/us that we are to give thanks all the time and to give thanks for everything. There are no exceptions in the words ‘always’ or ‘everything’ but there should be exceptions. There should be times and circumstances that I don’t have to give thanks for but Paul doesn’t give me a loop hole. Then it dawned on me…a promise we have from God that Paul penned as well! “And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord…” (Romans 8:28) You see even the stuff I don’t like, the stuff that I hate, God is using to make me better therefore I can give thanks always for everything. I won’t always understand it but I can trust His promises!
So, try it this month…give thanks always for everything. Makes me mad to think about it but it just might bring a joy to my heart to remember that God is always working for my good. After all, to the world the cross looked like a defeat but the only thing that was defeated that day was sin and the grave! Victory is had through Christ! We can give thanks all the time, in everything, because He has claimed the victory and He is on the throne.
In His Amazing Grace,
Dan