When You Don't Want To Be Thankful

I want to select some verses from the 5th chapter of James:
10 As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.  13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord ;  16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.   So endurance brings a blessing, huh?   That can be hard to comprehend, when we are in the midst of struggle or sorrow, when we are having difficult episodes in our lives.  We don't want to be thankful, even though God's Word tells us to be thankful in all circumstances - realizing that what we consider to be adverse circumstances can make us stronger, if we are submissive to what God wants to do in the midst of them.   This passage from James gives us the strong encouragement that God desires to meet us in our time of suffering and bring us to a point of healing and restoration - as James writes earlier, in chapter 1, the trying of our faith will produce patience, so that we might be complete in Him.

In 1st Thessalonians 5, the apostle Paul gives the admonition that can help us to gain or maintain the proper attitude when things don't go our way:
16 Rejoice always ; 17 pray without ceasing ; 18 in everything give thanks ; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.


I was following Twitter about 5:00 on Christmas afternoon when I began to see the reports of something unthinkable, especially for Christmas Day - a large tornado, caught on video, heading toward the downtown area of a large southern city, Mobile, Alabama.    A city that just experienced tornado damage just 5 days before...

Some might think: what a cruel joke, especially at Christmas - but it's very real for the people who suffered damage from the storm, and very real for those who were tuned in to TV and Internet, following the events of the afternoon in real time and wondering where the severe weather would head next - maybe our area?  And, indeed, in the Faith Radio area, we heard reports from the Pike County area, with damage to a mobile home park near Troy, as well as other possible tornadoes in that region.    And, we can be thankful that there were no injuries or deaths in the series of storms that moved through Alabama in places such as Mobile, Troy, Hamilton Crossroads, or Grove Hill.   The numbers indicate that there were some 34 tornado reports throughout the Southeast on Christmas Day - easily the largest number of tornadoes for that day, ever!   There have been 3 reported deaths due to this massive storm - one in Oklahoma on icy roads, another in Louisiana when a tree fell on a man's house, and another in Texas when a tree fell on a truck.

We're reminded of the fragility of life here on earth - and when struggles hit and we're beset by tragedy or adversity, we may not want to be thankful, but it's that thankfulness that can alter our attitude and freshen our perspective.   Even when we might not see the evidence of God, we know that He is there - for us - in the midst of the stormy times of our lives.    As I was reminded in a Christmas Eve service, God came for us.   He is there in the middle of our sorrow and in life's greatest joys.   And, the baby born in a manger is a sign to us of God's desire to restore us - to redeem fallen humanity, and to make Himself real when things seem to be falling apart.    So, we develop a grateful heart - for Jesus coming to earth, to a fallen world, where a multiplicity of bad things happen.   Because of His gift, we have hope - because He is here, we can rejoice!