“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.” (IThess 5:18)
It has always interested me that this admonition does not tell
us to be thankful for only the good things. The “every thing” goes way beyond
the good and takes in the setbacks, the defeats, the tragedies, the offenses we
suffer.
How can this be? It sounds incredible, doesn’t it? How do we
thank God for an accident that takes a child from us? Or a suddenly discovered
cancer? Or a mugging that leaves us hospitalized? By faith.
There are many things that we will never understand this
side of Heaven. But the more we know and trust God, the more willing we are to
entrust Him with the fallout of the bad things that occur in our lives. With
gritted teeth sometimes we have to say, “ We know that all things work together
for good to them who love the Lord…” (Rom 8:28)
Many things that seemed to me a setback turned out to be a
blessing with time. And some other things still seem like setbacks after years.
But I believe that if it hadn’t been for some of the really hard times in my
life, I would never have come to the intimate knowledge of God that is more
precious than my life.
Even if we don’t witness the good that emerges from the bad,
we trust that God is doing what He only does, good.
