By: Jonathan Carl
What does Ephesians 5:20 mean when it says to give “thanks always and for everything”? In this verse and several others, God seems to be telling us to be thankful to Him even on the darkest of days and the roughest seasons of life. Have you ever wondered why gratitude is so important? Here is how to be grateful to God, even when you are in a season of suffering.
1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (ESV)
Gratitude acknowledges God. In our fallen state we easily become self-focused. When times are good we can become self-reliant and fail to give thanks to God. In times of difficulty we can often be so overwhelmed by our suffering that we fail to appreciate the many blessings we have been given. Contentment is key (Philippians 4:11–13).
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Ingratitude is dangerous. Discontentment is a spiritually deadly disease. When God speaks to unbelief, one of the defining characteristics is not being thankful or honoring God.
Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him"
Trust God. We don’t always see how He is working at the time, but he assures us in Romans 8:28 that “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Often in suffering we want to know “why” and our immediate prayer is for it to stop. In seasons of difficulty we should ask God in prayer what purposes He is seeking to accomplish in us and through us while simultaneously sharing our heartfelt desire for the suffering to end.
Trials are gifts. That statement does not seem to make sense. Most of us would not willingly choose to go back through evil and suffering we have endured in our past. Human-purposed evil can be used by God for good purposes. The story of Joseph being sold into slavery is a good example, where his brothers intended evil, but “God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:19-21)! God uses suffering to draw us closer to Himself in order to give us a comfort so that we can overflow His comfort and love to others in a way we wouldn’t be able serve without the prior difficulty (2 Corinthians 1:3–5).
God grows us. God uses the testing of our faith to produce in us things that aren’t often discovered in the easier seasons of life (Hebrews 12:10–11). Romans 5:3–5 explains that we should “rejoice in our sufferings” because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” How we endure in suffering gives us greater evidence and assurance of our faith.
Look Ahead. Suffering gives us the reminder that there is something much better ahead and that this fallen world is not our place of final rest and relief. We need the reminder that our earthly sufferings “are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
We may not feel like being thankful for all things we encounter in life, but we can choose to be thankful knowing that God is still in control, loves us, and has a purpose for us even in the hardships of life.