Daily Affirmations - Day 1- Always Giving Thanks: For Everything

This week's Theme: Always Giving Thanks

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Day 1: For Everything

A dear friend who had walked through an arduous breast cancer journey reflected on the experience. "I would not want to travel that road again," was the substance of her conclusions, "but I am grateful for some special moments along the way." Even without a full understanding of her struggle, I grasped her meaning. The journey may not be the same for all of us, but the paradox of blessings in difficulty resonates with many.

Recently, I considered my friend's insights, as I listened to two other stories of unexpected benefits and gratitude moments in the middle of adversity. My mind darted to other stories and circumstances where blessings had been uncovered or experienced, or where great catastrophe had been averted or mitigated as a result of a hardship or trial.

I considered the instructions the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, …Be filled with the Spirit... make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).

Paul, whose own life was filled with extreme difficulty, hardship, and suffering, was certainly not advocating a forced gaiety, a sadistic perspective, or a stubborn denial. But he knew that our lives are but pieces of the whole, and he had learned what he taught— that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

For Paul, this was no mere platitude— he often scarcely bore up under the weight of pain and suffering, and was honest and open about the struggle: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself" (2 Corinthians 1:8).

Yet, Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). And from a Philippian jail he wrote an "epistle of joy" that opened with thanksgiving and prayer (Philippians 1:3-11).

It isn't that Paul had a special superhuman strength within himself— he candidly shared how he wrestled in prayer about a particular "thorn": Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. (2 Corinthians 12:8).

And in the wrestling and the hardship Paul learned the source of music from [the] heart in the response God gave: But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore," Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Like my friend, like those working through the struggles I described, and like many who wrestle with the ills of this world, I am grateful that roses do peek out from among the thorns. I am grateful for God's sufficient grace in the sins, griefs, pain, trials, temptations, trouble, discouragement, sorrows, weakness, burdens, cares, rejection and abandonment that are a given in this broken world.[i]

And I pray for you and for me, the continual filling of God's Spirit so that we can speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. I pray that by His daily sufficient grace we can sing and make music from [our] heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20). In any and every circumstance.

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[i] Borrowed from the hymn, What a Friend We Have In Jesus ~ Joseph M. Scriven, 1855