This Is God's Will?

I count myself as having been very blessed by God that throughout my life I have seldom had automobile troubles that called for a tow truck. In fact, each time I saw a car pulled to the side of the road it reminded me to thank God for that reality. I said seldom, I didn’t say never. Very recently it happened on a warm, rainy night when my wife and I were returning from a funeral in Michigan. It was late at night and we are traveling a full speed (55 of course) on I94 when all the lights started to get very dim. We were forced to pull off the highway. I was hoping for a large, well-lit gas station with food, drinks, rest rooms, and cover from the rain to investigate the problem. Not only did that station not exist, but we never quite made it to our exit road before the car died. With my vast knowledge of automobiles, I checked things out and kicked the tires. Nothing worked. Thank God for Auto Clubs; we called ours. This brings me to three verses in 1 Thessalonians 5. Verses 16-18. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” I have to tell you, the easiest verse out of these three is verse 17, “Pray continually.” We practiced that verse a lot that night. Praying that the rain wouldn’t be a real problem. We prayed for safety. (Especially considering where we were.) One kind lady stopped to ask if we were OK, we assured her we were and that a truck was on the way. She said, “Lock your doors.” A trucker stopped and talked for awhile. I told him about my hopes for a well-lit gas station. He replied, “Not in this neighborhood.” We prayed and prayed for the tow truck to get there, just as the verse exhorts us, ‘continually.’ We were practicing being thankful in spite of circumstances. We were thanking God that our circumstances weren’t as bad as they could have been. With no power we were thanking the Lord it was a warm night instead of 5 below. Thank God that there was not a snow storm that night, for lack of visibility could have caused someone to rear-end us while on the off-ramp. Thank God neither of us were alone – that can be scary. Thank God we have road-service. Thank God the tow trucker could get there within an hour and a half, or so, instead of 3 hours. Thank God our son-in-law was on his way to eventually get us home. I’m not sure either of us was practicing verse 16, “Be joyful always” a lot that night. I don’t remember breaking out in praise songs. We were thankful for a number of things but I’m not sure joy describes our feelings. That leaves the rest of verse 18. Can the Scripture really mean it when it tells us to give thanks in all our circumstances? It’s hard to see what God had in mind when it caused us all to lose a night’s sleep and several hundred dollars in repairs that I certainly didn’t need. But our problems were nothing compared to earlier that day burying my nephew. Here was a man leaving behind a wife and four precious children. He lived out his Christian life and was an example to many. We know he is in the presence of the Lord (II Cor. 5:8). For that we rejoice. Those of us who know Christ as Lord and Savior will see him again. But how do we answer the question, ‘how can this possibly be within the will of God?’ What is the purpose in this? The answer is simply that this side of heaven we will never have the answers to all of our questions. So, in faith, we hold to the assurance that God knows best, His will is perfect, and He never acts apart from love. Praise be to His Holy Name!