1 Thessalonians 5:16 and 18 NLT
“Always be joyful...Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."
As our seconds become minutes, our minutes into hours, and our hours to days, it is easy to focus on all that went wrong. Every little flaw and mistake seems to come back to your memory so that by the end, you have no recollections of anything going right. That is the enemy trying to infiltrate our minds, to take our focus away from all that God did for us on that day! It is his specialty to deter from the things that bring us joy and gratitude, and it's no mistake of his whatsoever. Paul says this so well in verse 16. He says to always be joyful; simple as that, right? What that really means is that we must strive to have an outlook on life that will always scream joy, no matter what the surrounding and even encapsulating circumstances of life will tell you.
In verse 18, Paul says that we should be thankful in all circumstances. All means each and every one of them. That means if you are floating on cloud nine or having the literal worst day of your life, be thankful. Being thankful doesn't always have to be some extensive or dramatic affair where we have a whole essay's worth of gratitude to show the Lord. The little things count too! A good start is just thanking God for life. It is by His grace and His grace alone that you are breathing, alive, and well this very second, and it's not something you even think about. As you go about your lives, try to find joy and things to be thankful for in every circumstance. Do not give the enemy room to steal that from you!
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God bless!
-Genelle
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