A HEART OF GRATITUDE
for the difficult in life...

In our society, we have been “taught” many things that aren't true:
that we should have what we want,
those things that make us, at least temporarily, happy,
that God is good and wants to lavish us with what we have on our wish lists,
that we have rights and are entitled to things just because...

It is easy to think that God does not listen to our prayers
when things aren't as we would like them to be,
that He is absent or has abandoned us when He is silent,
that He is punishing us when difficulties are present in our lives.

It is easy to thank God for those things
that we see and experience as blessings,
the things that make us feel loved, protected, and successful.
But Paul tells us, in I Thessalonians 5:18, to
“give thanks in all circumstances.”

All of us have things in our lives that aren't as we would want them to be:
physical pain, emotional wounds,
times of disappointment and discouragement,
losses – of loved ones, jobs, possessions, pets, familiar routines, money...
conflict, uncertainty, and struggle,
infertility, wayward children,
people who are unkind, impatient, critical, angry and negative,
disabilities,
strained or broken relationships,
failures...

HOWEVER, God, unlike mankind, is faithful to all that He has promised!
Whatever He has allowed to enter our lives
has been filtered through His fingers of love.
He uses all that is and all that is not,
the good and the difficult ~ people, things, and experiences in our lives
to draw us closer to Himself,
to help us learn to know Him more intimately,
to become more aware of who we are in relationship to Him
(and keep us from usurping His position),
to help us grow more and more into His likeness.

He uses it, too, to show others His power, His love, His grace,
His sufficiency,
the fact that He works in ways that are beyond our comprehension,
that He provides peace in the midst of storms,
a confident hope in Him when our world is turned upside down,
a deep joy about His faithful and abiding presence.
My response to what is happening provides a showcase
in which others can see the difference He makes.
As Paul points out in II Corinthians 4:7-9,
We are jars of clay, prepared to show that the all-surpassing power
is from God and not from ourselves.
We are hard-pressed on every side (just as others), but not crushed;
perplexed (as are others), but not in despair;
persecuted (as others are as well), but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed.
We experience and feel as others do, for we share humanity,
but our coping is with a Resource beyond ourselves.

Thanking God for the difficult things in our lives is choosing to believe that
God is able and willing to work though every circumstance
for my good and His purposes.
It keeps me from working against His efforts
by grumbling and complaining.
After all, who am I to judge God and His modus operandi?
It is He who has created and redeemed me,
the One who has repeatedly and historically proved
His ongoing creative ability to show Himself strong
so that others will see and know, consider and understand
that He will share His glory with no one else,
no god of our making!
God said of Pharaoh in Exodus 9:16:
I have raised you up for this very purpose,
that I might show you My power
and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth,
a purpose He has for each of us.

Twila Charles Leichty
November 25, 2008