Thankful Tribulations...

When I was a young college student (so very long ago), the women's dorm Mom used to tell us girls often in evening devotions: In order to find the will of God, you must DO the will of God. Then just last Sunday, my husband said the same exact thing while teaching on the will of God in his Newcomer's Sunday School class.

Sounds confusing, no? I know, you're probably thinking How can I do something that I'm trying to find?

Here's the good news: God has already written His will for everyone...and once we do what He has written, then we can find what He wants us to do.

Here are some of God's KNOWN will:

• To be a Christian (John 3:17)
• To be Spirit-filled (Eph. 5:18)
• To abstain from immorality (I Corin. 7:2)
• To be submissive to authority (1 Peter 2:13-15)
• To suffer righteously (2 Tim. 3:12)

...and then there's the last one and the one I want to focus on: to be thankful in everything. Scripture says: In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Did you know that it's God's will for us to be thankful in EVERYTHING?

As my husband was going over these points during Sunday School, he was reiterating the fact that we're not just commanded to be thankful in the good things...but the bad as well. Romans 5:3-5 says:  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Going through tribulations are not something I would volunteer for; yet, unforuntately, we live in a sin-cursed world where they're a part of life...whether we like them or not. And then there are times when the Lord sees fit to refine us by sending a trial our way. It's how we deal with them that is the key...and God's will is for us to be thankful for EVERY trial.

It's so hard to be thankful when you're in a trial. When I miscarried our first baby, I experienced grief for the first time. It spread like a sickness throughout my entire body, causing an ache that never seemed to go away. Nighttime was the worst! More often than not I would sit on the floor of our living room, in the dark, rocking back and forth, begging God to take the grief away. He did...and in the space of thirteen years, He gave us three more healthy children.

I could not have known in the midst of my trial what beautiful opportunities were yet in store...the comfort I could offer to other ladies, the tears I could shed with them, the verses of hope and healing that I could give because they had helped me so much.

Amazingly enough, a beautiful friendship blossomed and grew after one such time of heartbreak. That's the hope that comes from going through a trial.

Charles Spurgeon once said: "God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart." I don't know what trial you are heading into, going through now, or just coming out of, but I do know that it is God's will for you to be thankful because in the end...we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28)

Simply Thankful,