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Some words are all abuzz right now as the Thanksgiving holidays are here. You see the posts about being grateful. The sermons on thankfulness. Even here on AWM we are encouraging it. But what if I don’t FEEL like being grateful? You don’t understand what grief I am carrying right now!

I asked myself some hard questions recently and prayed as I searched for answers.

But does grieving give me a pass from being grateful?

What examples from Scripture are there of people being grateful even through adversity?

I took a deep dive into Scripture to find some examples so here we go:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 (ESV)

This passage has helped me a lot over the years. At one point, I even substituted my events in place of the ones Habakkuk experienced since I didn’t have vines and stalls. But I do have bank accounts and broken-down vehicles, bills needing to be paid, and feelings of aloneness and despair. Just like Habakkuk, I had to conclude similarly—YET will I praise or rejoice?

David: 2 Samuel 7 tells of a time in David’s life when he was sure God wanted him to build the temple. The prophet Nathan had to go to him later and tell him that God wanted David’s son to build it. That was David’s dream! And now his dream of a future where he could build a great temple for his God had been crushed.

Yes, I know that feeling well. Crushed dreams. You too? Immediately in this chapter, David goes straight into giving thanks to God. He didn’t stay in the crushed stage for long because there was so much to praise God for – it wasn’t about what David could do – it was about God’s faithfulness and greatness. Gratitude points us to God, not ourselves.

Apostle Paul:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6 (ESV)

Paul must have had a pretty easy life, right? He was always writing about being thankful. Surely he didn’t experience too many difficulties? Well, yes he did. He even wrote Philippians while he was in jail. Jail for preaching about the Messiah. And these jail stays of his came with horrific beatings, nearly killing him several times. Shipwrecks. Stonings. Hate from his own people. I’m not sure I could conclude my writings with thankfulness if I lived only five minutes of Paul’s life on this earth. Paul knew what being in difficult situations was like. He always sprinkled his prayers with thankfulness to God, no matter what his circumstances were.

Scripture reminds us many times, that even during the worst conditions, we can be grateful to God for something. When we look for those moments of gratitude, God begins healing our broken hearts, and we experience peace and joy like we never before. I’ve heard it called “reframing our thinking”. The world tells us to complain about everything. I can fall into that trap very easily. But when I reframe my thinking, I replace the complaining with gratitude.

Lord, reframe our thinking today so we are grateful. Give us Your eyes to see all we have to be grateful for, even while grieving. Help us catch the complaining before it develops and replace it with gratitude for all Your many blessings in our lives. Amen