When faced with trials and tribulations, do you thank God?
We have no doubt that many thank God in their prayers. But can we honestly say we purpose to find the good in EVERYTHING?
When life happens to all of us, we respond with being: happy, excited, worried, gripped with fear or anxiety. And if we’re being real…too many times we respond first and pray last.
Let’s not get this twisted, we’re no exception. Over a decade ago when we experienced financial hardship, we learned first hand what it meant to thank God in every circumstance.
Thanking God Revelation
One fall evening we started making dinner, and the stove wasn’t working. After 30 minutes of trying to get it to work, we decided to call the Gas Company to make sure they received our payment.
The customer-service rep told us that they received the payment. Unfortunately, they received it after they scheduled the turn off. In order to turn it back on, we would have to go down to their office and pay a re-connection fee.
We were barely able to make the payment, let alone a connection fee. However, the biggest hurdle that night, was to find a way to have dinner. Our gas stove wasn’t working. We didn’t have any food that could be eaten without being cooked. And there was no extra money to order in, with two kids to feed.
As we looked at our refrigerator contemplating what to do, we noticed our handwritten note that was taped to the front of our refrigerator. It said; thanking God in everything will get you through anything!”
This became such a motto for us, we created a printable wall art that can be displayed anywhere!
We wrote that note on our refrigerator to remind us to focus on God and not our circumstance. That night, we decided to have a picnic on the family room floor. We were going to have to put our pride aside, and call family to ask for assistance in ordering pizza.
Thanking God By Finding The Good
The kids had a blast – thinking it was super cool to have a picnic on the floor eating pizza. Not to mention, the kids didn’t even know the gas was turned off.
The next morning we went down to the Gas Company. After explaining the situation, God granted us favor, as we were able to have the gas turned on without having to pay any additional fees.
Praise was flowing from our hearts and lips, as we walked back to the car.
The next night, as we were sitting around the table having a home cooked meal, and the kids made a comment about how our picnic dinner on the floor was better than our dinner at the table!
Really – after mama prepared dinner. God will use situations in our lives to show us how good He is; contrary to how bad we think we have it.
Thanking God In Prayer And Praise
When we’re in the midst of trials, the best thing we can do is PRAISE God through it!
We may not feel like praising Him with our present circumstance, but our praise will put us in position to purposefully find something to be thankful for.
Our son likes to say, turn lemons into lemonade!
“I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” ~ Philippians 4:12-13(NLT)
In The End
We’ve hit rock bottom more times than we can count. Although we have lost family and friends to cancer, a home, cars, faced health challenges, yet through it all we’re still here. How? Because we’ve discovered thanking God in everything has truly gotten us through anything!
Happiness doesn’t come from our life being perfect. True happiness is found in our gratefulness for God’s goodness in our lives; no matter our circumstance.
And the best way for us to practice gratefulness is by thanking God in EVERYTHING, for all He has done, is doing or will do in our lives.
~ André and Timberley Gray
What an on time post. It is a season to be thankful. I love your ministry/testimony and how you live God’s priorities. It’s such a guiding light for me to witness regularly. Thank you 🙏🏾
Aww thank you for your kind words that is all God. ~ Blessings
Thanks for this reminder. Our rent was late this month because i i had it on autopay. That cost us$106 that we didn’t have but God is providing out every need. He is a good, good God.
Amen Mandy! That auto-pay is tricky at times. I’m real old school and prefer paper, it keeps me on my toes. ~ Blessings
Hi, I guess God wants me to comment, I was scrolling down with my left hand and it clicked on comment! I had to save this article because I agree, we have to thank God for everything in our lives. When we are grateful, God uses his awesome mystical powers and turns things around in our favour! I’m yet to experience this. I just intuitively know this as I am God and so are you and so are your children. I am wishing God’s almighty blessings on you and your family. God bless my friends. 💛
My kids love a sign I have that says “There is always, always, always something to be thankful for, and it’s so true. What an amazing God we have that in this harsh world, there is still always something to be thankful for!
Amen Danell. Thank you for stopping by to read. ~ Blessings
Great reminder!!! You are so right that praising God in the midst of our trials really does put us in the perfect position to watch Him work and it always inspires gratitude!
Yes! Watching God work really does inspire gratitude. ~ Blessings
This is so true! It has been in some of my hardest times that I have found that I can not only be thankful, but see more of how God is using everything.
Thank you Ayanna for stopping by to read. ~ Blessings
There were times when my family did not have regular income but we did not miss meals and essential services. People still came to us for help.We are happy and thankful because God used us to demonstrate His presence in our lives.May His Name be praised
Amen. Thank you for sharing.
god is always true and faithfull
This is absolutely the best thing I have learned to do all this while, because I know my father the all mighty God is always with me all the time, so I think it’s the only thing I can do at all times good or bad to be thankful to God, reminder my self that people faced worse situations but never thought about them, and only turned to God and praised him more (job) knowing that when am weak I am strong and no condition is permanent, joy comes in the morning
Thank you for sharing your story. This has really encouraged me in this current season that I am in, where many things are happening and are overwhelming. This is a great reminder to look beyond my circumstances.
Hi Porsha! Thank you for stopping by to read so glad it encouraged your heart. Stay encouraged sister God is workings out even when we can’t see, and He is in all the details we just have to look for Him. Blessings.
I’m sorry but this is long & kinda rambling, but there is a point! I have almost literally lost everything, more than once. All my possessions including my clothes, my Bibles, photographs/family portraits, & family “heirlooms” (sentimental value only), my family, my domiciles, cars, health, & mind. The only thing I have left is a small piece of land with the house I grew up in (which has been broken into, ravished, & left to rot & ruin), some woods, & my own house. I returned home Feb of 2021 after attempting to be close to my daughter & Grandchildren in AZ for a decade. My home is in GA. While in AZ, I lost belongings bit by bit, by trying to save them in storage units. Then when I moved back to GA, I lost everything else except the clothes on my back, my dog, my other dog’s ashes, 2 cd’s, 2 gifted Kindle Fire tablets, my phone, & one Bible. The moving company was a scam. Since being back home, I have been within a week of losing even my land & home! HOWEVER, one thing I never lost was the Love of God! In AZ, I was technically homeless for 5 years, but never, not one night, without a roof over my head! I had no income, zero, for most of those 5 years, thus the losing of my things in storage. My daughter turned her back on me instead of helping me. I haven’t seen my Grandchildren since 2014, except for a couple of hours in 2017, nor spoken to them except once this past May. I had to call on someone else’s phone for her to answer. My dog babies have passed, closest to my heart in 2019, aged 14 after 3 yrs as a diabetic, the other, which I inherited from my Mama, 3 months ago at age 18! Now I am all alone, humanly speaking, & barely able to take care of myself. Once again, I say HOWEVER: by the Grace of God, I am in my own home again, in my own room…a family was living here while I was gone to keep it from being vandalized like my homeplacee was, & I let them stay to help me (hasn’t happened yet). Their Head of Household had naturally claimed my Master bedroom. He gave it up for me. Anyway, God kept a roof over my head all those years, blessed me with several health related miracles, gave my canine babies long lives, brought me home, & most recently used the property tax situation for which I almost lost the place to rid us of bad housemates (“users” in more than one sense of the word, here by false pretenses who never paid one penny of rent, & took OUR things when they left! Oh, & has contacted one of my housemates b/c they are needing help.again!! Ha!) who refused to leave, until they thought we’d ALL be out on our behinds! Immediately after they left, I was blessed to be able to pay the taxes! Proof that God can, & does, use bad situations for good! The tax issue is another long story I won’t go into! I say that I must be doing something right (trusting in God even if I DO get scared before my faith kicks in), because the devil doesn’t harass those he’s already won! There’s truly not a lot lower I can go in this life, but even if I do, he will not win me! I have had times where he was bullying me so badly that I said aloud (& I don’t believe this New Age “speak it into existence” false teaching, nor do I recommend making contact with Satan!), “leave me alone! I belong to Jesus! I’m NOT letting go of Him & He ain’t gonna let go of me! So get lost!”!! As Paul said that he was content with little, I had to learn that lesson the hard way. Even if I NEVER have anything “nice” again, I have my home & my God. What more could I want? Except my family. I guess that’s my testimony, because I was saved as a child & don’t have any “God saved me from meth (or gangs, or human trafficking, or child abuse, or alcohol, etc)” testimonies. He may have saved me from some of those things by having me adopted at birth, literally just hours after delivery! The parents He chose for me, by having my bio-mom choose, were the most perfect parents He ever created! He has always held me in His hands, ESPECIALLY during the bad times!
WOW Sister you have been through it, but God! Thank you for sharing your story with such transparency and I’m sure it will encourage others! Stay encouraged and never stop fighting the good fight of faith! Blessings – Timberley
Wow 🤩
What a testimony to the goodness of God.
In fact, I discovered that thanksgiving is a form of spiritual warfare.
When the evil one tries to afflict us in an attempt to cause us to think hard thoughts about God, we stand up against him by giving thanks to God.
He is bound to withdraw from us because he finds us as an unsuitable tool to disgrace God.
God is good all the time and it is impossible for Him to do bad.
Thank You so much for living out your faith journey with us . It is encouraging and always timely . I was feeling the weight of my circumstances and overwhelmed with all the atrocities in the news, but you reminded to rest and give my worries to God .