All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

Americans have just celebrated Thanksgiving Day, so the subject of giving thanks is fresh in many believers’ minds. When it comes to thanking God, we usually only think of the pleasant and enjoyable aspects of life. But the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures call God’s children to give thanks in everything, or every circumstance. This means that Christians ought to have thankful hearts at all times, and be able to even thank God for the trials in our lives. Why? Because God “causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him” (Rom. 8:28). In other words, every event in a believer’s life is specifically orchestrated by God to influence that believer toward eternal and spiritual good, which is Christlikeness and knowledge of Him. It’s obviously often easy to profess to believe this, but harder to remember it and respond accordingly under distress and affliction. Yet even in such times, we’re called to recognize God’s hand in the suffering, and believe that He’s using it for our good.

Yet it’s often helpful to know how God uses affliction to benefit believers, and for what specific things we ought to give thanks because of them. A powerful example of the relationship between trial and thanksgiving through trial is contained in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. In this letter, he begins by thanking God for providing him with comfort in the midst of his affliction, and describes how his afflictions will eventually result in an abundance of thanks being given to God through prayer. In this passage, we learn that the Lord always calls us to intercede together for people’s afflictions so that many thanks will be given to Him and the Father. If you’re currently being greatly afflicted, distressed, or grieved, or know someone who is, then Paul’s words can point you to the hope that God provides through many answered prayers – all so that He gets more thanks. They can encourage you to intercede for your brethren or neighbors, and to invite others to do the same, so that God can get more praise.

What are “Thanks”?

Before studying the passage, I want to give you an explanation of “thanks”. We usually use this word or its relatives without really understanding exactly what it means. It is an Anglo-Saxon word that is originally related to the word “think”. Hence, it simply has the idea of thinking about someone because of a recognized deed that they’ve done. In the case of thanking God, it just means to recognize His work in our life, specifically by telling Him about it. This is one of central expressions of worshiping Him, since we exist and live for the purpose of recognizing how He’s revealed Himself to us. This is basically to praise Him, or to give Him glory. And He’s to praised and glorified for all that He does, since He is the Storyteller of the universe, and “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11b). That said, let’s consider what Paul has to say to the Corinthians.

Paul’s Thanksgiving

After blessing, or praising God for comforting him in his afflictions, and explaining that his experiences are for the good of the Corinthians, Paul goes on to recount the extent of his afflictions, and how they will ultimately result in thanks being given to God:

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, he on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” – 2 Cor. 1:8-11

There are four main lessons to learn from these verses about why God afflicts us with trials, how He saves us through trials, how we believers help each other through prayer, and why God answers so many prayers about just one thing.

God Afflicts Us Beyond Our Strength to Trust in Him

The first truth that is explained by Paul is the reason God provides us with such severe suffering that we’re unable to cope with it. Here he refutes that common idea that “God never gives you anything you can’t handle”. From the bare sense of this assertion, it is evidently false. The Lord actually always gives us circumstances we can’t handle, since the only way to rightly handle it is out of supreme love and fear of Him. And it’s only possible to respond to situations in the fear of God through the Holy Spirit’s power. In that sense, then, we’re always incapable of handling the events in our lives – by ourselves.

But there are special occasions where God brings us to the limit of our strength and willpower, so that the problem is such that we see no possible way of getting over it, and fulfilling our mission. Such was the case for Paul and Timothy, as he recounts that “we were burdened excessively . . . so that we despaired even of life” (v. 8). That is, they saw only one result to what they were facing – they would soon die.

And why did this happen to them? Was it so they’d abandon their mission, and give up? Was it so they would attempt to escape all the circumstances that led them to this peril? No, it was to cause them to avoid self-reliance, and to instead rely on “God who raises the dead” (v. 9). In other words, the Lord used their deadly affliction to motivate them to seek His supernatural work, which turned out to be their deliverance “from so great a peril of death” (v. 10). Further, this caused them to “set our hope” on Him, meaning that they were confidently expecting Him to provide them with even more relief.

So, if you clearly see that you’re in an impossible situation, know that the Lord is using it to keep you from trusting in your abilities, and to move you to look to Him to help you.

God Often Saves Believers from Affliction through the Prayer of Many

In Paul’s case, he not only had confidence in God, but also in the prayerfulness of many of his brethren, including the Corinthians. The city of Corinth was large, and many people had become believers through Paul’s and Apollos’s preaching. Hence, we can reasonably speculate that there were at least over a hundred Christians who listened to this letter be read. And Paul expected his brethren to pray for him and Timothy’s affliction, since he writes,

“And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers . . .” (vss. 10b-11a)

Paul was not only confident that God would save him from his affliction in general, but that He would do so in answer to His children’s prayers. Which brings us to the third truth contained in this account.

Believers Help Each Other through Their Prayers

The influential evangelist and founder of Methodism, John Wesley, once said that “God does nothing on earth but in answer to prayer”. This is one of the most overlooked realities in the Christian life, so we do well to take heed to it. And not only does God work mostly through the prayers of His people, but He also helps, encourages, and grows them through the prayers of others. Hence, Paul’s words that the Corinthians would help them “through your prayers”.

And why was Paul confident that the Lord would answer their prayers? First, because he knew the thing being prayed for would allow him to carry on his ministry of preaching and teaching God’s Word. But secondly, because the whole Corinthian congregation was going to pray for this one thing together. So, not only can we help our brethren by praying for them alone, but we can also help each other even more by praying along with other Christians for the same thing.

The question is, why does God delight to answer prayers only after many of His children have asked for the same thing?

God Answers Many Prayers to Get Many Thanks

Finally, we get to the main point of this lesson, which is that group prayer for the same thing is often preferable when interceding, so that more people can recognize the Lord for His answer. Thus, Paul concludes that the Corinthians will help him through their prayers “. . . so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us” (v. 11)

This also points to reason why God answers prayer in general – so that those who request the answer will thank Him for His answer. By this reasoning, we have one good argument to use when we’re asking the Lord to do something. We can ask Him to do something for us, or someone else, so that when believers learn of the answer, they’ll thank Him for it, and give Him more recognition for His glorious goodness.

In closing then, trust the Lord’s wisdom and power for your response to trials, seek relief from affliction through the intercession of your brethren, help them by praying for them, and seek to bring more glory, honor, and praise to God by inviting many believers to ask for whatever you’re asking for. We have His promise that He’s accomplishing His work of redemption through our prayerful suffering, so that His work of salvation and character growth will be ultimately attributed to Him in all things. Thanks be to God for His gracious deeds!