Being Thankful In All Circumstances

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How are you doing?  Things are going good at the Jones household.  I am currently in Dublin, GA heading to Kansas.  I am currently showing that I will be in Kansas Thursday morning.  I am low on my 70 hour clock so I can’t drive too many hours.  After lots of delays, Micah finally got his leg braces and will be getting his wheel chair. We have also found good therapists to help him with communications and with his fine motor skills. It has taken us a long time but we are very blessed.  God has given Paula lots of knowledge to help Micah while we were without any help.  We have found out during this time that while there is lots of information and help for children with Asperger's , there is almost nothing for those who have classic Autism.  We are asking God to help us help others that are having this same problem.  I am seeing that God is doing some amazing things through Paula.  She has been writing a book on our experience and it is really turning out great.

It is Thanksgiving week.  Lots of people are busy either traveling to family’s house or getting things ready for a huge meal.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I love the traditional Thanksgiving meal and relaxing with family.  It is also an annual reminder that we should be thankful.  It is a time for us to reflect on all that we have been blessed with and to give thanks for those blessings.  I see a number of my friends on Facebook list things that they are thankful for during the month of November and I love reading them.   But I notice something.  They only list the things that are good to them.  It is easy to be thankful for the things that we like but how about the trials?  How about those days when nothing goes as we like, are you thankful for those days?  Should we be thankful when we lose our jobs?  How about when we miss the bus or when someone does us wrong?  Should we be thankful for these things?  I know, “That is easier said than done.”  I can’t agree with you more.  But I also know that when God tells us that we should do something, it means it isn't impossible for us to do.  It means that we need to lean on Him to be able to do it.  There are lots of verses that tell us that we must be thankful IN ALL THINGS.   This means both good and bad.  The reason is because God is in control of all things.  He is Sovereign and He loves us.  He tells us that ALL things are for good and we must have faith that He is telling us the truth.  Do you believe that God is Sovereign?  Do you believe that God loves you?  Do you really believe it?  One of the problems we have as humans is that we THINK we know what is good for us.  We also forget that God uses us to help others and sometimes that requires us to sacrifice our self for the good of others.  A very popular example is patience.  Did you know that God requires us to have patience?  This is a very hard thing for many of us and we need God to help us get patience.  Guess what that means?  We must go through trials to help us get patience and those trials will not feel good to us.  How about if a neighbor needs his or her self-esteem to be boosted?  God may allow you to go through some real tough times and lead someone to you who can help you.  This can actually accomplish two things because God may also see that you need to be humbled.  Many times people will be blessed with lots of good things and then end up running into lots of hard times.  This is because when things are going good, we tend to forget God and we start boasting about OUR achievements.  We need to be humbled every once in a while. Most trials we run into though is caused by us.  Should we be thankful for these trials?  I say yes.  God could have stopped the trials but He chose not to and for good reason.  The best way to learn a lesson is to suffer the consequences for our actions.  The worst thing you can do to a child is to eliminate the consequences when they do something wrong.  God loves us, so He lets us suffer the consequences when we do wrong.  Of course, He is with us and helps us through the trial, but He doesn't take the trial away.  If our mind is in the right place and we are not blaming others for what we are going through, we will come out of the trial saying, “Wow! That didn't work out.  I won’t do that again.”  Sadly, this is the hardest trial for us because human nature gets in the way and we refuse to admit or see that the trial was our own doing.  This causes us to repeat the thing we did wrong.

Every trial we go through is for good and we should be thankful for them.  This Thanksgiving, think of the trials you have gone through and thank God for them.  Then, make a promise that from now on, you will thank God every time you go through a trial and that you will take a good, honest look at the trial and see the blessing that came out of it.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,

The Oklahoma Tomcat

References:  1 Thessalonians 5:18, Psalm 107:1, Ephesians 5:20, Colossians 3:15-17, James 1:17, Philippians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 9:15, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 105:1, Colossians 4:2, Psalm 118:1-18, Psalm 20:4, Psalm 30:12, Romans 1:21, Psalm 100:1-5, Psalm 23:1-6, Isaiah 12:4-5, Philemon 1:4, Psalm 9:1-2, Psalm 95:2, John 14:1, 1 Chronicles 29:13