In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
When I asked to be baptized in eighth grade, part of the ritual in our church was that each candidate gave a public testimony prior to the rite, and they were asked to share a favorite Bible verse. No verse stuck out in my mind; but since my motivation was to do God's will, I looked up "will of God" in a Cruden's concordance and read the verses I found in the Bible looking for a clear statement of what the will of God actually was. I could only find three reasonably clear statements in the entire KJV Bible, and this verse in 1 Thessalonians was the clearest and most meaningful to me at the time. So this was the verse I used at my baptism; and from that time on, giving a prayer of thanks in the ups and downs of life became for me what is often called a spiritual discipline.
I came to understand that the impact of this discipline was not about developing a feeling of thankfulness for every literal event but about being thankful in every situation: as the verse says, "in every thing give thanks." The NIV gives the intended sense: "give thanks in all circumstances." When you give thanks to God in difficult circumstances, then for all practical purposes you are even thanking God for the bad things that have turned you in prayer to God, as some other verses may be understood to suggest. It's just that the focal point of our thanksgiving is not on the thing itself, but on the inner experience of God's will that the "thing" has enlivened.
This discipline applies to positive experiences as well, since all that is good finds its ultimate roots in God; but the impact of the discipline of thankfulness is probably easier to grasp in relation to negative experiences. Almost anyone will say "thank God" at good news; but reacting to bad news is another story.
When bad things happen
It does not really matter how I say it, but the meaning of the expression of thanks becomes…
not necessarily "thank you for this broken bone" OR "thank you for this rejection"
but rather "thank you for this experience of...." OR "thank you for this opportunity to...."
How you finish these possible sentences has to do with how you are aligning yourself with what you believe God is doing in your life. In the above examples, depending on the circumstance in their lives, one person might choose to be thankful for this chance to slow down, another for the opportunity to develop empathy with others in similar circumstances, and others might simply be thankful that they can trust God to meet their true needs in spite of the setback.
This discipline amounts to acknowledging what you are actually being thankful for in each experience, be it a negative or a positive experience. What I discovered was that as I expressed thankfulness, it prodded me to think differently about circumstances, particularly the difficult ones, and to examine myself. I have come to believe this discipline moves me more in the direction of viewing things from the broader perspective of how God views them than from the narrow perspective of my own wants.
No matter how grave the situation we find ourselves in, we can always be thankful for the assurance that God will supply what we need - even if we must walk through the "shadow of death."
I think this discipline helps align people with God's will for them, even as they continue their everyday ambitions and pursuits.
