What do you do when your storms rage? Thankful invisibly disabled people can face a raging storm easier.
You just got a new, unwelcome diagnosis. Your symptoms ratcheted way up beyond belief. Something went wrong in your family. You just couldn’t go to that special get-together.
How about looking for a scrap? . . . A scrap of thankfulness.
“The Bible tells us in everything give thanks.
It doesn’t say for everything. It says in everything.
Don’t lie and tell God thanks when you’re not grateful.
He wants you to look past the problem and find the scrap of good that’s there.
God isn’t a fairy-tale genie who gives us everything we want;
we have to lean hard on Him and trust He’ll work things out.”
Forevermore by Cathy Marie Hake
How did Hope do that?
This fictional woman, Hope, urges her grieving friend to trust God even in his difficult circumstances. She prompts him to look for anything in his life that is still good and give thanks for that. She references 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
In our storms, we need to consider what Hope says. Do we believe in a powerful, loving God? If so, we need to identify the good that still exists in our lives, then thank God for it.
In my opinion, this verse is often misrepresented as meaning that we should thank God for all the bad of our storms. To me, that’s like saying, “Yea! This really hurts, but I’m so glad I’m experiencing it.” You can be happy, though, for any good that results from those difficulties.
I believe that verse is saying that even during our storms we need to find the good and thank God for it. To do so with a grateful heart increases our trust. That does not mean we become a Pollyanna, always smiling. Our thanks can be (and, for me, too often is) given with a heavy heart.
So, in our hard times, we need to find a scrap of good to thank God for. We aren’t thanking God for the awful circumstances, but we do thank Him for something while the circumstances are happening. It can be thanking God because He is ______. (You fill in the blank.) Or, it can be thanking Him for that tiny ray of sunshine in our lives.
Scraps of thankfulness:
- Did you have a bad headache and now it’s gone. Thank God.
- It’s hard to walk, but at least you CAN walk. (That’s me!) Thank God.
- Your spouse is supportive even during the bad times. (A big one!) Thank God.
- You believe God is good. Tell God.
- Your child had a good day in school. Thank God.
- Is it a sunny day? Thank God.
Are you feeling down because of all the storms in your life? Finding something - even a seemingly inconsequential little thing - in your situation for which to give thanks can turn your attitude around. It can lift you up. It can turn a horrendous day into a bearable day. And some days, that makes life worth living.
As a skilled seamstress can take these scraps and transform them into a beautiful, functional quilt, so can God take our scraps of thankfulness and transform them into an overcoming life.
Happy scrap hunting!
