Say Thank You, Even When Nothing Good Has Happened
I’ve completely skipped over Thanksgiving and headed straight for Christmas which is sad because everyone knows my family is Lakota so November is a big deal for us. But an even bigger deal is Jesus and right now He comes first.
This week I do want to take a Thanksgiving moment and discuss what it means to be thankful as a Christian. Is saying something as simple as ‘thank you Jesus’ really going to make a difference in our faith? Keep reading to find out.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 KJV “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
I talked about giving thanks in my post, You’re in Trouble? Thank God… you can read up on that by clicking here. Today though, I want to talk about how being thankful can have a direct impact on your faith. As you see, I Thessalonians tells us not to just give thanks but to rejoice! Pray without ceasing. Do you know what that means? That means tell God every thing,that means speak to Him continuously. That means keep in constant contact with your heavenly Father.
Sure, you might not want to say thank you for everything but there is always something to be grateful for. For those who’ve been keeping up with my posts, I’ve mentioned before that I’m a self-published author. Recently I’ve started sending out query letters for my latest manuscript, I was full of faith. On fire for God!
And then I got a rejection letter.
A nice, neat little letter that was less than a paragraph—actually it was one sentence.
“Thanks, but no.”
Ouch, right?
Why should I be thankful for that?
Well, after I finished sulking I got on my knees and prayed. I was honest with God. That agent didn’t even give me the time of day but you know what? I serve the Creator of the universe, my father is in charge of EVERYTHING under the sun. If He wanted me to work with that agent then I would have gotten a positive response.
So I didn’t thank God for getting a rude rejection letter, instead I thanked Him for setting me on the right path toward the agent He’s already set out for me. Now I can cross that name off the list and move on to the others. Hey, that agent didn’t have to respond to my query at all. ‘No’ isn’t the answer that I wanted but some authors don’t even get that. So, in a way, I’m thankful for a rejection too.
This thankfulness hasn’t changed anything about my situation. I don’t have an agent. In fact, I have a rejection letter and an unwanted manuscript but you know what? I also have God, and God is all I need. This situation has strengthened my faith. Its taught me that there is always something to be grateful for. How has this impacted my faith?
Being told ‘No’ has shown me that I truly have to depend on God. I can’t make it in the literary realm without Him at all. And you know what? At this point, I don’t want an agent who doesn’t want to work with an openly Christian author—and yes, I’ve been told by agents that they would consider me if I ‘toned down the religion’. That’s exactly why Cross Academy was self-published on Amazon. Click here to take a look at my book.
So what about you?
Think of a time where something went wrong, something didn’t turn out the way you thought it would and ask yourself, was that so bad? See if you can find God in that situation. Sometimes He’s easier to see once it’s all said and done.
Our mindset determines our progress. I could give up and go find a ‘real job’ or I could trust in the Lord and keep on pushing. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, I’m not going to waste all those ‘thank you’s’. I believe that God has something bigger and better for me and I’m going to step out on my faith and keep taking action to reach the promise He made to me.
This negative event has become something so positive for me. Its turned into a new post for my blog, its increased my faith and trust in the Lord, and its shown me that God is in control. So maybe saying thank you didn’t get me an agent but it did make it a lot easier to find a new topic to write about this week and that’s worth a thank you.
God bless