Learning To Give Thanks In All Circumstances...Even Cancer

  Yesterday, in my quiet time before church, God challenged me that I need to "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1Thess. 5:18  "Are you kidding?" I asked Him  "Thankful for cancer?"  I don't know if I can do that?
  It is so easy to thank God for the apparent blessings like the birth of our little Karis.  But what about the things He allows in our lives that we didn't sign up for, that we would like to wish away.  "Give thanks in all circumstances" echoed His still small voice.  "What happens if I am not thankful?  If I don't cultivate a thankful heart in all circumstances?" I whispered.  "A hardened heart toward Me".  "An unforgiving heart" was His reply.  "I don't want a hard heart or an unforgiving heart, Lord!" At that moment my least favorite book in the Bible (one of my husband's favorites by the way) popped in my mind.  The scene was from Job 2 where Job's wife is just overcome with grief and anger over the loss of all she held dear and now Job himself has been physically afflicted.  Her response to Job, "Do you still hold fast your integrity:  Curse God and die."  "But he said to her, "you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.  Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  Later Job says in 13:15  "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him..."
  It is amazing how one day you are living life and all is "normal" and the next minute little seems normal and your world has been turned upside down. Things come into our lives that we would have never imagined, never wanted. What do we do, how do we move on?   Part of it is perspective. Gaining God's perspective. "7But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not diriven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed;"  "16 So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us and eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18 

What happens when I dwell on the bad ie the cancer and activily engage in a personal pity party?   I have a tendency to fall prey to negativism and complaining. Ok whinning!  Which can very quickly, if not checked, lead down the slipperly slope to a critical spirit. I have got to apply the spiritual brakes of trust and a thankful heart.  It comes down a choice. Do I trust God with Kevin's cancer?  Do I trust Him to continue to take care of me, to never leave me nor forsake me?  Am I willing to accept the good from God as well as the bad and be thankful?  I can not do this on my own.  But as Jesus said in Mark 9:23, "All things are possible for one who believes".  So I'm believing God!  And Jesus is enabling me to trust Him in all situations and to thank Him in all circumstances, even cancer. I am choosing to trust God.  I am choosing to thank God...yes even for cancer.  I am truly thankful for this journey with God.  Though the journey is hard and the road at the moment is rough and pitted with pot holes  I am thankful I don't journey alone for my God is with me and I am holding fast on to Him.  He is better than a seatbelt!!  My secruity is in Him.