Giving Thanks When Life is at its Worst

It’s easy to praise God when life is good, but what about when it isn’t?

Life isn’t always good, is it? we’ve all struggled through hard times, and if you haven’t, well, you will.

When things aren’t good, there is still so much to be thankful for, and if we lose sight of that we lose sight of hope, it’s an endless downward spiral of misery that we only add to. So how do we do it?

1. Start by saying ‘thank you’

Matthew 6:7–9 ESV

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

We usually start our prayers, and sometimes even our everyday interactions with a focus on me, me, me. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to look out for yourself, someone has to, but when ALL we do is that, when things don’t go our way it’s so easy to sink into despair about it.

When we start with thankfulness, even if it’s hard, it’ll change our focus. Suddenly, we’re lining up our heart with what is GOOD instead of what is bad.

2. Set your sights on the one who CAN

Matthew 6:10 ESV

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

We need to remember that we cannot do everything ourselves, we need people in our lives to support us and help us, but even then, people will let us down. We need to set our sights on the God who never lets us down, and even when it looks like it, we can trust and know that He has better things in store than we could dream of.

Check this out

Ephesians 3:20 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

When we focus on what we can do, it may seem hopeless, but God can do infinitely more than we could even imagine.

3. Let It Go

Matthew 6:11–15 ESV

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

One of the main things that keep us miserable is staying angry at others.

Just as bitterness produces more bitterness in others, so love begets love.

Alan Loy McGinnis

Bitterness refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner man.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Bitterness indeed always corrupts and spoils.

Donald Guthrie

4. Don’t Forget Where Your Treasure Really Is

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

King Solomon, the richest, wisest, potentially most famous king in all of history never found contentment in all his earthly treasure, he said this.

Ecclesiastes 5:10–11 ESV

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

A king who had everything was still longing for more, no matter what you have, if you only store up and focus on earthly treasure, you will always be miserable, we can’t find gratitude in a life like that.

If we can’t find gratitude how would we ever be thankful, even when things are good?

5.Don’t worry about it

Matthew 6:25–34 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.