Seeing God’s work in everything

Interesting question. My first reaction is to think that we shouldn’t be ‘relying’ on anything temporal, and that we are to trust our heavenly Father in every way and for every thing. Where did I just mention this… ah:

I don’t want that for you either, or for any of us! :slightly_smiling_face: It’s not easy to be thankful for everything, especially the hard things. In my experience, Christians are quick to cite 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (the two verses preceding it are okay too):

Give thanks IN all circumstances

That’s fairly easy, because you can pretty much always be thankful things aren’t worse. Like, whatever you’re dealing with, at least you’re not in Ukraine.

But this one is frequently overlooked:

…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20

That’s not something you should trot out to someone who is in the midst of a trial though (and it’s hard enough for myself when I’m having difficulty in one way or another!)! I’m pretty much always thankful in retrospect (not always for things that I have said or done though!), even the hard things. (I’ve been struggling somewhat in how to encourage @adamjedgar whose wife is enduring chemo currently.) The One Thousand Gifts book I mentioned above starts out with her toddler sister being fatally injured after being run over in their farmyard when the author was only five. Oh, and the ‘dare’ in the subtitle was to herself first, to make a list. (And of course, that providence and ‘co-instance’ are involved didn’t hurt my feelings any. ; - )

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