Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

When I think of earthly heroes and those whom I greatly admire, Corrie ten Boon is high on my list. She and her family were responsible for hiding and helping the Jews in World War II, thus spending years being tortured in concentration camps. Upon their arrival to Ravensbruck, near Berlin, Corrie and her sister, Betsie were placed in a filthy, overcrowded barracks infested with lice. In her 50’s, this was more than Corrie felt that she could bear.

They were determined to be Christian witnesses and examples, even in these adverse circumstances. Corrie had even smuggled in a Bible with God’s help. However, that night as they lay down to sleep, with tears streaming down her cheeks, Corrie whispered to Betsie that she didn’t know how she could ever be thankful for the lice.

Betsie, being the eldest and seeing things from a different perspective, responded with excitement. She had already heard the talk spreading amongst the women that because of the lice, the guards wouldn’t come into that particular barracks. Guards were known not only to physically torture women prisoners, but also to sexually abuse them. Betsie excitedly assured Corrie that because of the lice, they wouldn’t have to face that abuse while dwelling in that God-provided shelter. She elatedly explained that because of the lice, they would also have the freedom to read the Bible, and even have Bible studies with other women, without fear of the guards coming in and confiscating their Bible. Through this, Corrie learned that she could even be thankful for lice.

Most of us, myself included, have major trouble being thankful for all things—just look at this evil world around us. How could I be thankful for my 10 year old niece being run over by a semi? How can I be thankful for the murders I hear about, or for the abuse of innocent children?

It’s difficult to even conceive that God would want us to be thankful for all the evil. If we look at our scripture, it doesn’t say that we should be thankful for every thing. Rather, it says that we should pray with thanksgiving in every thing. We can also see this in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 where the apostle Paul writes, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” God wants us to express thanksgiving no matter what circumstances surround us.

After all, even when bad or evil things happen, God has promised all of us who love Him and are serving Him that He will work all things out for our good (Romans 8:28). This is a great mystery that we don’t often understand, and it requires a great faith to hang onto it.  We do this by casting all our cares and burdens on Him (1 Peter 5:7/Matthew 11:28-30); by receiving His peace through our prayers of thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6-7); and always thinking on the good things (Philippians 4:8-9).

Recently, I was reading an article in the secular magazine, Woman’s Day, on No Worries. The author used many biblical principles, but the section on gratitude really caught my attention. She cited a study that was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002 on severely depressed people. Martin Seligman, PhD, a researcher and psychology professor asked these severely depressed people to go to a website once a day before they went to bed and write down three good things that happened that day and why.

These were people who were so severely depressed that simply getting out of bed could be one of the things on their list. This was their only treatment— writing down three good things every day. Within 15 days, 94% felt less depressed. This study has been repeated several times since, and every time researches found that being thankful actually made the subjects feel happier.

If this works in the secular world, on subjects suffering severe depression, how much more can we Christians follow God’s instructions and claim His promises by being thankful in everything? I dare say that if every one of us followed these same instructions given in that research project, our lives, also, would drastically change for the better.

ALL good things come from God. If it’s good, He is the source, and we need to give Him thanks. In the natural, when we do something special for someone or give them something, and in return, they show us their appreciation and gratitude, we have a desire to give even more to that person. If we, being humans, feel that way, don’t you think God also reacts similarly when we honor Him with sincere thankfulness and appreciation?

Of course, He does. Just look at the story of the ten lepers who Jesus healed. Only the one who came back to thank Him was made whole. He received more of God’s goodness than the other nine.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful, annual holiday, but for Christians it should be a daily celebration, giving glory to God for who He is and for all He’s done!