Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  (1 Thess. 5:18)

Pretty straight-forward huh?

God’s will for your life …

God’s plan for your life …

is to give thanks in ALL Circumstances.  

That is, your past circumstances, your present circumstances, and the circumstances you’ll face in the future.  

In whatever circumstance you find yourself, God wills and desires that you give thanks.  

• Whether you’re majoing in biology or theology
• Whether he/she likes you back or not
• Whether you are single or married
• Whether you have a car/job or don’t
• Whether you’re friend-full or friend-less
• Whether your ministry is surviving or thriving
• Whether you have $!0 or $10,000 in your bank account
• Whether you know what to do for the rest of your life or don’t

God wills that you give thanks.  

We often get so caught up on God’s will concerning our choices - but it seems as though God’s more interested in our ability to give thanks in all our choices and circumstances.  

Contrary to what is taught in many pulpits in our day - the abundant life God has in store for us doesn’t come by choosing the right person or choosing the right job.  Rather, the abundant life comes through the thanks we give regardless of the choices we made for our majors or our spouse.  

Of course, it is wise for us to seek God’s wisdom and wise counsel from our parents, pastors and spiritual mentors.  And we need to develop spiritual discernment as to the kind of gifts and strengths God has given us to utilize for His glory.  (I would strongly recommend you to take the Strengths Finder 2.0 Test by Tom Rath.)

However, we can’ get so stuck in our fear to choose the “right person”, “right job” or the “right ministry environment” that we paralyze ourselves and get stuck in our a choice-less & choice-postponing existence.  

God can’t steer a parked car.  

As much God deeply cares for you to make the “right choices” - His ultimate will for you to remain faithful and thankful in the choices you’ve made trumps His desire for you to make the “right choices”.  

• Whether you marry Mary or Sally, Tom or Tim
• Whether you become a nurse or a dentist, a teacher or a pastor

God will bless the choices you’ve made in faith and grant you an abundant life if you remember to give Him thanks in the midst of your choices and circumstances.  

Gratitude is the source of the well-spring of water that flows out of our belly which glorifies God refreshes everyone that we come in contact with.  

And the reason we’re able to remain thankful in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves in - is because God is both the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  

He is the God of yesterday, today and forevermore.  

In Revelation 11:16, we find the heavenly host thanking and praising God for something that He hasn’t done yet.  Because they know that in God’s timeless existence He has already done it and behold His salvation in faith.  For faith helps us see what is seemingly unseen and undone. 

This is how heaven operates.  In faith and thanksgiving!  

And the only people that are going to join the chorus in Revelation 11 are those who develop to ability to thank God in all circumstances - and in advance for all the great things He will do for us.  

Happy be-lated Thanksgiving!

Remember to thank God for the week coming up - including the final projects and exams you’ll take before Christmas break and the New Year.  For God in His “timeless existence” has already helped us and has given us the wisdom and strength to overcome the finals week.  Praise God!  :)  

God is not a magic 8-ball we shake up and peer into whenever we have a decision to make.  He is a good God who gives us brains, shows us the way of obedience, and invites us to take risks for Him.

Studies show that many 20-Somethings are majoring in “Indecision”.  

• Name:  20-Something
• Major:  Undecided

Undecided and Uncommitted to enjoy ”Unparalleled Freedom”. Which was supposed to make you happy, but it ends up making you even more dazed & confused, anxious and bored.  

And at this point, many use religion as a “crutch” and postpone growth and maturity by stating that you’re just ‘waiting on God to reveal His will for your life’.  

So, many pass off instability, inconsistency, and endless self-exploration as “looking for God’s will” phase.  

There are many questions that bounce through your mind as you meander, explore and tinker w/ life, religion, school, people and friends.  

• What should I do this summer?
• What should I major?  Should I change my major?
• What kind of career do I want?
• Should I get married?  Who should I marry?  
• Should I go to grad school? 
• Is now the time for me to buy a house?
• Where should I go to church?
• What should I be doing w/ the rest of my life?
• And who should I be spending it with?

What God wants you to do is to make a decision and be faithful to the decision you’ve made.

In God’s eyes, it really doesn’t matter if you marry Sally or Mary.  As long as you’re faithful to whichever one you marry.

And it really doesn’t matter which career you choose.  As long as you faithfully develop yourself to grow in knowledge and skill in your profession.

God does have a specific plan for our lives, but it is NOT one that He expects us to figure out before we make a decision.

Many fear that they’ll take the wrong job or buy the wrong house or declare the wrong major and even worse, marry the wrong person. 

Your faithfulness now, determines your future destiny.

Pastors . .. and pastor’s kids.  

It could also apply to

• MKs (Missionary’s Kid) 
• EKs (Elder’s Kid) 
• DKs (Deacon’s Kid)

There is a world of difference and chasm between the two.  One chose to be who they are.  And the other, they had no choice.  They were born one, whether they liked it or not.  

I was born as a PK.  And I was always known as a PK.  No one really knew me by my name.  I was always Pastor Yang’s Kid.  

In my adolescence, I tried hard to find myself ’apart from’ the ‘God-given birthright’ as a pastor’s kid.  I tried to run as far away as I possibly could from my ‘spiritual inheritance’ to somehow find who I was ‘really’ meant to be.  

There had to be a mistake.  I was born into the wrong family with the wrong set of parents.  I had to have been switched at birth.  This had to be some kind of cosmic slip-up.  

There was no way that God could’ve entrusted me to the most un-cool, un-worldly, non-conforming, old-fashioned, conventional, traditional and consistently all-too-SDA parents.

I was doomed.  I couldn’t breathe.  I was suffocating under the tyranny of Adventism.  All the 100% SDA ‘Kale, Celery, Green Pepper Juice’ I had to chuck down my throat speak for themselves.  The fact I had to memorize all 52 Bible Verses for the last Sabbath (because I was PK) of the year vindicates my quandary.

For quite some time, I fought long and hard to resist with everything in me the person I was created to be.  I couldn’t accept the fact I was who I was.  It was unfair.  I was missing out.  I was stuck with parents that didn’t want me to have any fun.  When all of my friends were playing in the arcades I was memorizing Bible verses.  When they were wearing whatever they wanted to church, I had to dress up like a good PK.  When they were having fun outside, I had to sit in the front row and take sermon notes.  I was miserable and very despondent.  

In the meantime, it never occurred to me that maybe I had been strategically placed where I was for a very specific reason and that I was being trained for a very specific purpose.  

And it was just this past Sabbath, the last ‘official’ Sabbath at VASDA, that it finally dawned on me why God had chosen me to be born into a pastor’s family and had trained me to become who I was.  

When I stopped resisting, when I stopped fighting against the predicament God had prepared in advance for my life, the eyes of my heart opened and I gained insight into the mysterious and enigmatic providence of God.  

I spent the last 2 1/2 years in full-time ministry here at VASDA as the youth & associate pastor for the English Ministry.  At first, it wasn’t clear as to why I was here and what I was supposed to do.  But last Sabbath, it became very clear as to why I was born as a PK, and why I was called into ministry.  

All throughout the farewell ceremony, all through the tears, hugs, embraces, testimonials and messages of appreciation for our ministry, the words that evoked the deepest emotion of my soul were these two very simple words.  

Thank You!

Thank you for . .  Thank you for … Thank you for …

I was being thanked.  For what?  Who was I and what did I do to receive such gratitude and appreciation?  

And out of nowhere came The Voice.

Well done my son.  Well done.  This is why I created you.  This is why I trained you.  Now do you understand?

And that’s when springs of joy and utter delight exploded from the depths of my soul and I rejoiced & praised God for His providential plan for my life.

There has never been a moment like last Sabbath when life made perfect sense.  Like a Panoramic IMAX View, all the scenes of my life from its genesis to the present moment passed before me and I was in awe and in worship to the God who is the Alpha and Omega!  

Then it came.  This huge, massive, gigantic, enrapturing peace that overflowed into every fiber of my being.  

God connected every dot from the ungrateful-PK-me to being-thanked-pastor-me.  

Wherever you are, in whatever circumstance you seem to be ‘stuck in’, there is an over-arching, invisible fabric that the Grand Weaver is weaving to connect the present-you to the future-you.