This Thanksgiving I’m going to conduct a spiritual experiment of sorts.
It’s typical to give thanks for the good things in life.
I want to go further. I want to be as grateful for the hard things, the seemingly “bad” things–the things I don’t like about my life, even the things I hate and wish would go away.
The things I call in Abundant Gifts “disguised gifts.”
You see, in my years of attempting to live “the Abundant Gifts way,” I have developed a theory of how things work in the spiritual realm.
My theory, in a nutshell, is that when we, in faith, receive even the difficult, unwanted things in life as a gift, that somehow triggers that thing to become a blessing eventually in some way.
I don’t think that all things automatically or necessarily turn out for the good. Scripture says that God works all things together for good “to those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
In other words, to those who live by faith, who are Aligned with their Divine Design.
It’s difficult to express how this might work. I don’t want to say that our faith “allows” God to turn a curse into a blessing, exactly. Yet I wonder if that is somehow how it works. If you shut God out of certain aspects of your life, how can he work things out for your good? But if in faith you welcome his grace into the situation, then he is “free” to work things out as promised.
There are definitely things in my life I do not welcome. Yet, in faith, I recognize that I probably do not see the big picture. How often, in retrospect, did you experience something that was not pleasant at the moment, but later turned out to be a gift in some way?
So now, at this moment, though I do not see the blessing in some of my circumstances, I believe that it’s possible for God to turn it into something good.
So I will thank God for everything, good or not apparently so good, this Thanksgiving. I can pray, “God, I don’t understand how this thing can possibly be good in any way. But in faith, I believe you can turn it into something good. So I thank you for allowing this into my life, and I will wait, in hope and faith, for you to transform this into blessing in some way.”
I’m very interested in your response. Should we give thanks for all things? Post your comment on the blog by clicking “comments,” please.
And if you would like some personalized help in removing the blocks that keep you from being Aligned with Your Divine DesignTM , check out my coaching at HealingCodesCoaching.com.
Dear Diane, Yours articles are always give me warms and support. I didn’t contact you for so long time but for the whole year I constantly was reading them and love what are you writing about. This year was very difficult for many people, including me. I met my friend recently after one year and at the end of our conversation she told me that without support from the Lord you wouldn’t stay like you are now. I want to express my real gratitude for everything you did and will do for us. Please, don’t stop your work, we all… Read more »
Dear Nina,
I was so happy to hear from you! Thanks for your encouragements, and my prayers for many blessings and sustained strength go out to you!
This article allows me to to accept the circumstances I’d rather not have and allow being grateful in another way, not just on the things that are working or contributing to our wellbeing.
I hope you had a wonderful time on Thanksgiving.
Janice, thanks for your comment. I’m glad the article helped you. I think good things open up to us when we can accept even the seemingly negative things as from God’s hand, who in the end “works all things together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Our trust, I believe, activates God’s goodness to be poured out to reverse any evil that comes to us.