2 Timothy 3:1-2 says, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy..."
Hebrews 13:5 says, "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have..."
Covetous means having or showing a great desire to possess something belonging to someone else. Ever heard of wanting to keep up with the Jones's? My phone provider keeps sending me emails telling me that my iPhone is upgradable. Am I tempted? Sometimes. But then I remember that two years ago when I got my brand new iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 came out just a few months later. My phone works perfectly, so there is really no reasonable purpose for upgrading right now. I need to be content with the one I have.
I think we all know what unthankful means, but listening to people, including children, talk at the store ( I'm not eavesdropping, because they are talking loud enough for people two aisles over to hear, ha), I realize that not very many are thankful with what they already have.
I was reading a blog this morning, and I was so impressed with what she wrote, that I just have to share it with you. The blog is called Ever Thine Home by Barbara Rainey. These are her words...
An eight-year-old, whom we’ll call Amy, wrote in her diary:
Today I forgot to brush my hair and my pencils all broke. My brother goes around the house screaming and bothering me. I can’t not take anymore. I almost feel like running away, but I can’t because I simple have no place to go. Darin is a pain at school. Mr. O’Neil picks John all the time. It has been a bad day. I’m glad nothing will be rong in heaven!
We all have bad days; sometimes we have several in a row. Often our bad days are simply full of nuisances like Amy’s little brother, or a driver in front of us who is going so slowly we’re late for an appointment, or the grocery store running out of the one item we need for dinner. The vacuum breaks, our favorite tee shirt gets lost, our cell phone keeps dropping calls, a neighbor complains about where we put our trash can. It’s pouring rain—again—and the kids are stuck in the house all day. Inconveniences and inconsiderate people can make for bad days.
But think for a moment. Is it possible that God is using that slow driver in front of you to protect you from a wreck? When you lose a valued possession, might God be teaching you contentment? When someone in your life is being difficult, could God be giving you an opportunity to pray and see what He will do?
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Are you willing to look for the good that God intends in something that may seem bad to you?
Matthew Henry was a Puritan preacher from the late 1600s. Like our friend Amy, he once wrote in his diary about something bad that happened to him. One day, while walking home in London, he was robbed by a couple of men who jumped him from the shadows of an alley. Being robbed is hardly an everyday nuisance—it’s much more unsettling, more of a personal violation that can leave one feeling vulnerable and frightened.
Reverend Henry probably felt those things, but what he wrote that night in his journal is very instructive: “Let me be thankful, first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.” What a great perspective on a difficult situation!
Matthew Henry chose to look for the good that was hidden in the bad. And by doing this he showed us how important it is to focus on the positive that God wants us to see in every situation in life. It’s always there; we
just have to choose to look for it.
When we give thanks, we are saying to God that He is good in all that He orders for our lives. We are filling our minds with the larger truth about our situation and about Him, not just feeling sorry for ourselves that bad things have happened.
Thanking God is not a magic wand that makes everything perfect, but it does bring balance to our emotions to keep us from feeling only sad or lonely or unhappy.
What hard things have happened to you recently? Are you willing to look for the hidden good in them? Do as Matthew Henry did and write down what you can be thankful for in your hard situation. And if you have children or grandchildren, help them learn to be grateful by finding the good in the bad, naming those gifts and writing them down to be remembered.
Lord help me to be more thankful, and look for the good in every situation. Romans 8:28 tells us, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
