Devotionals

An Attitude of Gratitude

by Anne Adams
05/04/24
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  (I Thessalonians. 5:18 KJV)

An Attitude of Gratitude

Once years ago when I reading a nostalgia magazine among the photos and, articles I found an interesting advertisement with a puzzling headline. The first line read: “Hooray! It’s the Depression!”

At first reading that just didn’t sound right. You’re saying “hooray!” – meaning you’re excited and happy – about a hard time in the history of our country? But then when I read the sub-head and saw the entire phrase it made sense. The entire ad read: “Hooray – It’s the Depression! And wasn’t the music wonderful?”  I saw that the advertiser was selling CDs and tapes from the Big Band era.

Yet I still wondered - is it actually possible to look back to a time of struggle and be happy about it? Of course, you can certainly be happy when the struggle is over but did you know that at such a time you can also be grateful? And not just thankful that it’s over but for the entire experience. Hey - is that really possible?

Well, actually it is and in fact we’re directed to think that way – as the Apostle Paul said in our passage. And if he says we’re to be thankful for “everything” then does that include the hard times? Apparently it does.

But why would God ask us to do that? Perhaps it’s because only when we look back that we can really comprehend both his presence and work in the midst of our problem. After all, often it’s only when everything’s over that we truly understand what happened. And as we look back we can be grateful for it all.

Of course, we don’t really have to wait till it’s over – if we just remember to be thankful to him for everything in good times as well as the bad.