READ: PHILIPPIANS 4:4-13; COLOSSIANS 3:1-4; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18

No one understands! I’m a failure—useless. People would be better off without me. I didn’t want to feel like this, but the thoughts came anyway. Would anyone notice if I was gone?

Have you ever felt like this—hopeless and discouraged? If you’re a child of God, Satan is going to want to stop you. What better way to stop you from serving God than to make you feel useless and like a failure? But what does God say in His Word?

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul writes something shocking: “Give thanks in everything.” Paul, the man who had faced more discouragement than most—the man who had been beaten numerous times, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, mocked, and who was struggling with a “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)—tells us to give thanks! Not only that. He goes on to say it’s God’s will for us to be thankful.

Didn’t Paul feel discouraged? Absolutely! He admits he wasn’t naturally thankful or content; it was something he had to learn (Philippians 4:11). When Paul told us to give thanks, he knew it would be hard. He knew heartache, pain, discouragement, and depression. But he also knew God.

Hopelessness is not what God wants for us. And He doesn’t leave us alone in our despair—He came to us in Jesus. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we can know that all the hard things we go through are temporary, and our struggles don’t define us. When we give thanks to God, it turns our focus onto Him and the abundant hope He has given us through Jesus. If we dwell on our difficulties, we will be discouraged, but when we turn to God, thanking Him in every situation, we experience His joy.

Is it easy to give thanks during the hard things? When your friends betray you, when your mom is in the hospital, and when you don’t fit in? No, of course not. But the reason God calls us to thankfulness is because He loves us and wants to point us to Christ. He is the true source of joy. • Priscilla J. Krahn

• What are some good things God has brought out of difficult things in your life?

• How does the gospel, and looking forward to Jesus’s return, affect how we understand God’s call to give thanks in every situation? (For more about this good news, see our "Know Jesus" page.)

• If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless, who is a trusted adult you could talk to today?

Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (CSB)