Daily Verse
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
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Sunday's Reflection
1 Thessalonians 5:18 — In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Gratitude is easy when life is going well. When the harvest is good, the family is healthy, the job is secure — giving thanks costs nothing. But Paul is not writing to people whose lives are going well. He is writing to a persecuted church in a difficult city, and he tells them to give thanks in every thing. Not for every thing — the Bible does not ask us to pretend that pain is good or that loss is fine. It says to give thanks in it, meaning inside it, while it is happening, in the middle of the hard.
That is a very different instruction. It does not require that we feel grateful for suffering. It requires that even in suffering we choose to bring God into the picture — to acknowledge that He is still present, still sovereign, still worthy. That kind of gratitude is not natural. It is a discipline, and like any discipline it has to be practiced before it becomes possible in the moments when it is hardest.
This week we look at people who found their way to genuine gratitude not because their lives were easy but because they chose to keep their eyes on God when everything else was falling apart. Their stories are not comfortable. But they are real, and they offer something far more useful than inspiration — they offer a way through.
"That which is done for the glory of God should be done with cheerfulness, with songs of praise and thanksgiving, not with sadness and gloom. It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work." (Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 103)
Prayer: Father, thank You — even now, even in whatever this week holds. Teach us to give thanks in everything, not because we feel it naturally but because You are worthy of it always. Amen.