Giving thanks takes practice. It’s easy to be thankful when things are going well but when we learn how to be thankful during even the tough times, God grants us the peace we need to endure the trial.  

In painful moments, it’s a choice to consciously bend our thoughts away from resentment and remind ourselves that the high qualities of our invisible but ever-present Father are still good regardless of our circumstance.

As you wait for God to work out His plans in due time, He will offer you this oasis of peace to soak your thoughts in; it’s called thanksgiving.

It is God’s will that we continually grow. If we are not growing, we are dead. It takes some soul-searching effort to understand what motives God is working to replace in us. Some things are just not for us to understand right now; this is where a flourishing of faith takes place in what we cannot see. 

Here’s what I know to be true, God knows best. He is a God who eventually defeats the worst diseases and even death itself. Virtually any circumstance – however painful or pleasant – can be used by God to shape character, and it is for that shaping we can be thankful.