It seems so easy to talk about the goodness of God when our prayers are answered – like getting the job we want, the promotion we ask for, the medical report we hope for. To be thankful when things are working for us is so easy, but what about when the heavens seem to be made out of steel and our prayers keep returning back to us with no apparent response in sight? To be thankful then is incredibly difficult. The words seem to get caught in our throats as the circumstances of life declare that there is nothing to be thankful for. Yet, it is during those difficult times, so familiar to every one of us, that we are commanded to “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,” (Psalm 50:14.) It is precisely because the difficulties are so great that it is a sacrifice. But why give thanks then? Our thanksgiving in those difficult times is our declaration of the faithfulness and goodness of God. Psalm 50:23 reads “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me”.
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