Give Thanks in All Circumstances by Bart Bartosh

1 Thessalonians 5:18
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
   
Thanksgiving, for me, has felt relatively the same over the past few years. I am giving thanks for my family, friends, extra time off of work….the usual. Now I’m not saying that I don’t actually find those things to be blessings, but at some point, there really should be a deeper dive into what I am thanking God for.  
     
Giving thanks in ALL circumstances can be difficult to do during hard times, and when I am going through the thick of it, thanking God is usually the last thing on my mind. I have yet to walk into my flooded basement and give thanks for the mess that I have to clean up. Even though this is a fairly weak example, the message can be applied across the spectrum of hardships. It’s not the problem that we are to give thanks for, but rather the ability to give that problem to God and acknowledge that we can not fix them on our own. We can thank the Lord for, again, being at our side and guiding us through the toughest parts of life like he always does, and allowing us to lay these overwhelming situations at his feet.
   
So this Thanksgiving season looked slightly different for me. I, of course, ate way too much food, took that mandatory post meal nap, and watched football. However, the difference is instead of tallying up the normal blessings that I consider every year, I am leaning into the more difficult aspects of life and understanding that there are still reasons to give thanks in those circumstances as well.  
     
God, we thank you for your provision and sovereignty. We understand that you are always for us and never against us, and even when we are going through the toughest seasons of life, we know that, with patience, you will always show up for us in magnificent ways.