Food for the Soul Monday: In Everything...

We are in one of my favorite time of the year- the time where we are intentional about being thankful. Of course, ideally we should be intentional about being thankful 365 days a year, but in this society, it's mandatory in this season ;-)

 The challenge is that we as believers are in this world but not of it so in this season I’m reminded of God’s word:
 
“In everything give thanks, for THIS is God’s will for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18) 

 Not just during Thanksgiving season. Not when things are rosy. Not when things seem to be working out quite smoothly.
 
In EVERYTHING. (tough pill to swallow)
But...
 
This is what makes us different. This is how we stand out--giving thanks when the circumstance we find ourselves in screams that it deserves better.  We deserve more.
 
Gratitude acknowledges the place of lack without giving it a foothold.  Gratitude is seen through the peace we display when chaos visits.
 
More than a verbal declaration and a social media post, it’s a disposition of the heart and the mind. A lifestyle.
 Most importantly, gratitude is a work of the Holy Spirit.  If it’s been difficult to give thanks lately, don’t be discouraged. Invite the Holy Spirit to come in as you be still before the Lord and His Word to do a work in you.
 
It’s the lazy soul that worries. The lazy soul that complains. It’s a disciplined soul that invites the work to be done within them so they can see, not with natural eyes, but with the Spirit, just how faithful God is. And when we see with the Spirit, our natural environment is subject to it.
 
Paul understood it best when he said that he found contentment no matter how and where he found himself.(Phil. 4) Why? I would like to guess that he learned how to give thanks for God’s faithfulness in it all.  It became natural for Him as He saw in the Spirit.
 
God’s word reminds us that God cannot be anything but faithful. He can’t disown himself. (2 Tim. 2:13). Now, THAT deserves some thanksgiving because we know how unfaithful we have been and can be and will most likely be in the near future. BUT God!
 
 So what is that very thing for you that, in your own desire, would rather complain or remind God how unfair it is? What is God asking you to give thanks for? It may not be the situation as much as it is thanking God for His grace and mercy on you to go through the season or the circumstance.
 
Let’s invite the Holy Spirit today and every day to help us give thanks in EVERYTHING so that we can please God. This is His will.
 
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6-7)