I Thessalonians 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Thankfulness is very important. Good parents will teach their children to say thank you when they receive something from another person.
In Romans 1 Paul warned that one of the reasons for the development of the reprobate is that they are not thankful to God for His blessings.
It is interesting that Paul was directed by God to remind the saints to be thankful in every thing. We know that Paul and Silas could thank God in the Philippian jail. We know that Peter and John could thank God for being seen to be servants of the true God.
It is not natural to be thankful when we face trouble. If it is self-imposed trouble, the child of God can be thankful that God loves them enough to step into the path of their foolishness. God will remind those who are saved of the importance of obedience to His will and way. It is also important to thank God when things are going well. God is good and He blesses His child. Giving thanks for our food prior to eating is also important. You may have worked hard to earn the money needed to buy the food. However, it is God that gave you the ability to work hard in order to be able to purchase that food.
We are in the midst of the harvest season in Canada. We have been blessed with some good produce from our garden this year. There is still more to come, but we have already been blessed. We were hit with hail three times this summer. One was quite devastating to our crops. However, they recovered and we have seen some good produce come from those plants. The hail did some damage but it also brought moisture.
We have heard that some farmers have had some good yields from their fields as well. Some did not do so well. However, it is important to thank God for His blessings. There are things we can learn when things do not go as we planned. We can learn to trust God even when it looks like we will not get what we expected. We can also thank God for reminding us that we need to trust Him in all things.
We see in our text that it is God’s will for us to be thankful in all things. It is because of Christ Jesus that we can be thankful. The most important fact for any person is to know that he or she is saved. It is important to remember that Jesus Christ came to this earth to die in our place. He had no sin. He came to lay down His life for sinners who do not deserve salvation and were not looking for God’s salvation.
It is also important that God not only gave us His Word, but He is also preserving His Word for each generation. We need to be thankful for the fact that we can know the truth and be set free.
We know the devil has attacked God’s Word in many different ways. There are many perversions of God’s Word on the market today. There are many churches where the pastor uses and promotes one or another perversion. You cannot build a sound life if you use a book that has many errors in it. You will miss some of the key ingredients needed to build a strong life. Those who are truly saved will hunger for the truth. Their soul will not be content with an anemic diet. The Holy Spirit indwells the true child of God, and He wants each saved person to be able to grow stronger in the Lord. In order to do that, the person must have the truth. The truth is not hard to find. Your preacher may be deceiving you. If you are saved, you will not be content with that deception. You will not be content because the Holy Spirit will not be content with that.

I Peter 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

God never wants His child to settle for less than the truth. Thus He talks of the sincere milk of the word. Don’t settle for something that is insincere. Settle for that which is truth. Jesus declared:

John 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

You cannot be free unless you have the truth. The truth is absolute. It is discernible to the spirit of the true child of God. The truth is found on the narrow way. Jesus declared:

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus Christ is the truth. We can be thankful that the Bible makes this very clear. Since Jesus is the truth, we know we can identify and walk in the truth. Jesus does not offer us many versions of the truth. He does not tell us that truth is optional. He gives us one truth and the spirit of the saved person will desire the truth in their heart. They will not fight against the truth. They will understand that the truth cannot be a multitude of different things.
We can be thankful that God has seen fit to protect His Word so that every person in every generation can know the truth. Apart from that, we have no hope.
It is God’s will for us to be thankful in every thing. We can do that when we know the God of truth. When we submit to His Word and follow His way we can be thankful. We can help others to be able to come to that place of truth as well, as we demonstrate a right attitude toward the challenges we face in life. God does not tell us that the challenges will always be easy and pleasant. He tells us that He will guide His child through the challenges. We can grow stronger through the challenges when we trust in the Lord and show thankfulness in the midst of those challenges.
Pastor Bartel