Rejoice, Pray, and Give Thanks

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Everyone wants to know the will of God for their lives. Well, here it is. Rejoice always. There is ALWAYS something to rejoice about. In fact, there are always multiple things to rejoice about. Are you breathing? Rejoice! Do you have food to eat? Rejoice! Do you have clean water? Rejoice! Do you have a job? Rejoice! Do you personally know and have a relationship with Christ? Rejoice! Some things are big. Some things are small. But, there are SO MANY things to rejoice about if you have the eyes to see. Pray continually. Be in constant conversation with the God of the universe. He's always present with a listening ear. He cares because you're his child. And, when you talk to him, it delights him. Give thanks in all circumstances. Even the worst circumstances don't negate all the things we have to be thankful for. In fact, it's a lot easier to not be thankful when things are easy, right? We take a lot of things for granted when life is going along smoothly. And sometimes we slip into the mindset that we are doing a pretty good job of taking care of ourselves. What a lie! It's when things get really hard that we see God's hand in even the most minute details. We've seen the Lord's hand in so many ways in the last 5 weeks. (Has it already been 5 weeks??!!) And we are SO THANKFUL. In the last month, in addition to Nathan's cancer diagnosis and treatment, we've had a child that needed stitches, a child that has likely broken a toe, a child that likely has Type 1 diabetes that we will have to start dealing with, and many more things that we will not go into here. But, let's just say we could have a lot to complain about. Is it hard? Yes. Of course it's hard. Now, there's a choice. Complain or rejoice? When we read Scripture, we see God's goodness and faithfulness to his people. And, we are his people. We've seen his goodness with our own eyes. We are often overwhelmed when we think about things we've seen God do in our 46 and 48 years of life. But even more moved by what he did on the cross for us over 2000 years ago. Rejoice! How is God so big and yet knows every hair on my head? (This is crazy because we are constantly shedding hair, and he STILL KNOWS. That means every moment of every day, God is watching over me. God is holding me in his hands. And he will NEVER let me go. He will never let you go either. So, rejoice, pray, and give thanks. What a beautiful way to live. And, let's not forget that this is the will of God for you. He wants the best things for you. He knows exactly what you need. Those things may not show up in the form you would expect or even want, but they will be filled with purpose. “So suffering is at the very heart of the Christian faith. It is not only the way Christ became like and redeemed us, but it is one of the main ways we become like him and experience his redemption. And that means that our suffering, despite its painfulness, is also filled with purpose and usefulness.”-Tim Keller Prayers and Praises: * Praise that Nathan's EXTREME pain has subsided and that he was able to teach 2 full days in a row! * Praise that his first cycle blood work shows that the treatment is killing off the myeloma and his myeloma numbers are headed in a positive direction! * Please pray for continued success with the treatment despite the fact that today he was diagnosed with pancytopenia. This means that all of his major blood cell types (white, red, and platelets) are all too low. This is another drug side effect. So, they have had him stop the drug that he was taking that is causing this issue. Unfortunately, treatment is not as effective when you aren't on all the drugs, so please continue to pray for effectiveness in treatment despite being off this drug. And please pray that all these blood cell numbers go up quickly. * Please pray for Nathan's hip pain. This is new and is bothering him more than his back right now. Thank you once again for being here. We are so thankful for each one of you!