"IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS"

When I was just a young believer, as I began to be taunted and jeered because of my faith in Christ, I read these words of inspiration and began to learn the way to obtain peace in the midst of heartache and trouble - "In EVERYTHING give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thess. 5:18).

As a believer I understand that whatever I experience in this world is the will of God in Christ concerning me, and that in everything it is the will of God for me to give thanks to him. Experience has taught me that this is the only way to find peace in the midst of heartache and trial.

Understand this, that which we suffer in this world is as much the gift of God as the faith by which we are saved (Phil. 1:29). Painful as the trials are which God has given us to suffer in this world, being fully persuaded that "all things are of God" (II Cor. 5:18), by his grace I am determined to gladly bow to his will, rejoice in his goodness, and give thanks to him for all things. I thank God for the pains that drive me to the throne of grace, for the foes that force me to take refuge in Christ, for the betrayals of friends that endear to me that "Friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24), and for the groundless reproaches of men that identify me with him whose heart was broken with reproach for me. When I can give thanks to God for my troubles I am at peace with my troubles.

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DANVILLE

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422

236-8235