Some days it feels like everything is falling apart at once. The calendar is full, the bills are due, and someone you love, maybe even you, is hurting. You keep climbing, but the hill never seems to end.
High in the Scottish Highlands, a road climbs steeply up a glen called Glen Croe. Around 1750, the soldiers who built that military road knew how hard the climb was, because they had made it themselves. At the summit, they set a stone seat and carved four words into it: “Rest and Be Thankful.” The climb was hard, but the work was done. Travelers who reached the top could sit down, catch their breath, and give thanks.
What a picture of the believer’s life in Christ.
The Climb Is Already Finished
We live in a broken world. Sin has touched everything: our relationships, our health, our finances, our minds. If our thankfulness depends on circumstances, it will be as fragile as the world around us. And when man stops giving thanks to God, the heart only grows darker:
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” - Romans 1:21
But here is the good news: the hardest climb has already been made. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1Co 15:3-4). Salvation is not a mountain we climb to earn God’s favor. It is a free gift, received by faith alone:
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” - Romans 4:5
We do not climb to earn our rest; we can rest because He finished the work. Then we give thanks.
Rest First, Then Thanks
The moment you trusted Christ, God gave you a position that never changes. You are justified, at peace with God, accepted in the beloved, complete in Him, sealed with the Holy Spirit, redeemed, and forgiven (Rom 5:1, Eph 1:6-7, 13, Col 2:10). Your circumstances may shift by the hour, but your standing in Christ does not.
Once you quit striving and rest in the peace you have with God, the proper and best response is thanks.
That is why thankfulness is possible even on the hard days. Thanks follows a gift, and we have received the greatest one imaginable: eternal life that we didn't deserve (2Co 9:15, Rom 6:23). On top of that, He gives us every breath, provision, and fellow saints to walk alongside (Acts 14:17, Php 1:3).
Thankful in Everything
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18
The reality is, even when situations seem terrible, you can be thankful in everything. Your standing is secure, and God can use the trial to grow you and others. Every tribulation is an opportunity to magnify the strength of Christ’s grace (Rom 5:1-5, 2Co 1:4, Eph 5:20).
When we stop giving thanks, our problems grow larger in our minds than they really are. We turn inward, get selfish and entitled, fix our eyes on what we lack, and forget what we already have. An eternal perspective puts them back in their proper place:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
God has not promised us an easy road, but He has promised grace sufficient for every step of it (2Co 12:9-10). Seeing Him as the source of every good thing in and through us makes us more thankful, and more reliant on Him.
Sit Down at the Top of the Hill
If we’re honest, many of our prayers sound like a whiny wish list. We should bring our requests to God, but how we come to Him matters, and we should remember who we’re talking to and what He’s done:
“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
You are not promised the outcomes you desire in prayer. What you are guaranteed is the peace of God in your inner man, which keeps your heart and mind fixed on Christ. This is not a peace you can produce by willpower or a change in circumstances. It is from God, and it can be had in any circumstance, whether things are “going well” or not.
So the next time you pray, before asking God to fix what is falling apart, sit down at the top of the hill for a moment. Remember what He has already done. Let His peace rule in your heart (Col 3:15). Be thankful, and watch how it changes your perspective on the problems in front of you, in light of eternity and what Christ has already done.
Then pass it on. The lost around you are climbing the same broken road without the rest we have in Christ, and the same gospel that gives you peace can give it to them. But they are not the only ones still climbing. Many Christians, relying on their own strength instead of Christ’s power, are stuck on the hamster wheel of trying to “do better” and “work harder,” when the life and strength they need is found only in Christ (Gal 2:20, Php 4:13). The rest is in Him. Share it with the lost, and remind the saints of it too.
The work is done. Rest, and be thankful.
If you need a reminder, here’s a song by the same name that can help.
