Can We Be Thankful For All People?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions regarding our recent sermons. This last Sunday we talked about being thankful for everyone, encouraging everyone, being having attentiveness and empathy greeting one another. And so question came in. How can we really be thankful for all people, as Paul says that we should? One, Timothy, two, one.

Give Thanksgiving for all people. Aren’t there some people for which we should not be thankful? Maybe people who have really hurt us, people who are a major distraction to us, people that make life harder for us. Should we be thankful for them? Can we really find something to be thankful for for every single person?

Is that realistic? I would say what helps me is to go back to what we believe God is doing in our lives. As Christians, the question of should we be thankful for everyone really has more to do with God than it has to do with the specific person that we’re talking about. Because God to Christians has promised that he will work all things together for our good, right? Romans 828.

And so that includes every person that we would ever come across, somehow gets entered into the grand equation of our life. And the result of that equation is good for us. So whatever someone is doing in our life, god has allowed that to happen, has allowed that person into our life and will ultimately use those events for our good later on down the road. So if there’s someone who’s particularly difficult and you can’t see anything to be thankful for, you can still be thankful that God is going to use this person to bring about good fruit in your life, to draw you closer to Him, make you more reliant on Him. Maybe change something in your own character, broaden some kind of worldview.

We don’t know exactly what the outcome will be, but we do know that it will be good because God is working all things together for our good. So somebody you’re like, I can’t see one thing to be thankful for in this person. Take a step back and say, I can still be thankful for what God is going to do through this person in my life. Well, hey, hope that’s helpful. And keep, keep sending in your questions.

The more of these that we get, the more we really understand how you are hearing and interacting with our sermons. And so we love receiving them. Thanks and we will see you next time. Bye.