Thankfulness for Hard Things
By Chris Potts
When is the last time you were thankful for hard things?
Have you ever been a part of the Thanksgiving tradition of sitting around the table and taking turns saying something that you are thankful for? Let’s try it out! Right now - go. Think for a second, what are you thankful for this year?
The top three answers are on the board are likely to be family, health, and friends. After that we might see freedom, experiences, and opportunities. Now, I also bet that if you are reading this post you would all include God – The Father, The Son, and The Spirit — on your lists of things to be thankful for. Or maybe you might exclude Him because we tend to think of Him as someone to be thankful to instead of for? It's something worth thinking about, although it’s not really the point of this post.
So, what is my point? I want us to think outside of the box a little a bit. How many of you earlier thought, “Oooo, hard things! Duh, I’m totally thankful… for hard things. Hard things are totally on my list.”
Yeah, none of us, right! But…
I have been trying to think of something for this 2023 Thanksgiving devo and I have been having a hard time thinking of something to talk about. And don’t get me wrong, I have NO SHORTAGE of blessings in my life that I am truly thankful for. I am married to the woman of my dreams. We have 5 healthy grown kids. We’re even expecting our first grandson in a month and a half. I have a dream job where I work with AMAZING people! (I am so thankful for all of you, and especially the Impact leaders!) I am relatively healthy. I’m productive and pretty much get to do what I want. God has heaped blessings on me. If I can stop talking about myself for a minute — Jesus! What about the incredible fact that He died for my sins so that I don’t have to bear the punishment and instead get to be with Him in Heaven forever!?
Still, I’ve had the hardest time trying to prepare something to share. Then God revealed to me that my inability to think of something was because of a hard situation that I’m going through. It’s not a particularly uncommon hard thing, although most of us try to avoid this sort of thing — interpersonal conflict. I have found myself in an especially strong disagreement with people who I would have categorized as friends, and it feels like there isn’t much hope of an end in sight. And it’s awful! I mean to the point where I lose sleep over it every night, waking up thinking about it and praying about it. And I’m not that guy. Stressful stuff doesn’t usually make me lose sleep, which I think is making it extra hard for me. But it is also good because it has given me opportunities to humble myself, to search my heart, to ask God what He thinks, and to show me where my heart needs to change.
There are many different ways that I could go with this situation, but I want us to consider being thankful for the hard things in our lives. Here are some reasons why:
1 - Hard things are a part of God’s plan to make us more like Jesus.
Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Is there any greater thing that could happen to us than to become more like Jesus? And this is God’s plan — the one He’s had since before creation. All things work together for the good of those called according to God’s plan. And if all things means all things, then that includes hard, challenging things that we don’t usually see as good.
2 - Hard things are a refining process that reveal and increase the realness of our faith.
1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Trials test your faith — purifying, strengthening, and sharpening it in the process. When you are facing a trial and you rely on God to get you through, instead of your own strength or effort, less of your self-centered intentions infect your relationship with God (and others you might be having a hard time with). That is the “tested genuineness” that Peter is talking about. Genuine faith is based on God, not me. More of God, less of me. Is there a greater reason to rejoice?
3 - Hard things perfect and complete us
James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Perfect and complete, lacking in nothing??? Does that actually mean that trials help us become the people God intends us to be? Yes, it does. Hopefully by now you can see the overarching theme of this blog post. Trials and hardships, hard things, are not really about us. I mean they are, but not really. They’re about Him! The only way we can survive and thrive through hard things is through God, and He uses these challenges to make us more like Him. We should be grateful for the opportunities to depend on God to get us through hard things. We should be thankful for those opportunities to grow in Christlikeness and be conformed into Jesus’ image.
Can I also point out that Peter tells us to rejoice over trials and James says to count them all joy? I don’t think we will be able to do that if we can’t be thankful for the opportunities that hard times present us. We should take joy in the fact that God loves us enough to do whatever it takes to strengthen us and complete us.
All that to say, this holiday season I have set my heart to be thankful for the hard things in my life. What about you?
REFLECTION - take some time to meditate on Romans 8:28-29, 1 Peter 1:6-7, and James 1:2-4 before responding to the following questions and writing down some thoughts.
What are some hard things you are going through right now?
In what ways can you see God working in your heart through a hard thing?
In what ways can you depend more on God through this hard thing?
In what ways can you express thankfulness and joy because of this hard thing?
How does this change your perspective on hard things?