Thanking and praising God is something many people do , only and mostly when things are going right and well for them.
To many church going people ,God the creator of heaven and earth is only associated with success , prosperity , good health and many other blessings. Is this not called “Quantitative faith” , a faith based on tangible things considered as blessings instead of Qualitative faith , a faith based on with or without any material blessings ?
If you are one of those who only thank and praise God when things are only going well for you ,what do you do when everything seems to be going terribly wrong for you ? Your business is struggling ,you have not paid rent for 6 months and now your landlord has decided to evict you from your offices. Are you able to stand up ,give a testimony , thanking God for the bad things happening in your life?
Earlier on today , Saturday the 12th of July 2025 , I attended my weekly morning and afternoon sabbath church service with a heavy heart because I was going through family and financial problems .I partook of the Lord`s supper , taking part in praise and worship services though sometimes I was failing to sing and praise the Lord joyfully because I was heartbroken by my situation. As I sat in church after what seemed to be a long church service , the pastor was finished and the elder of the church asked for any one or two people with testimonies to come up and share the testimonies with the church. I looked around hoping to see someone stand to give a testimony of what God had done for them. No one stood up. I was left with many questions: Was God doing nothing for any of any of our more than two hundred congregates in church ? Do we give only give testimonies of only the good things God had done?
After the church service , I joined dozens of fellow brethren that I always sit down with for lunch. The pastor was also there and we were joined by our Robert our regular Muslim brother who only comes for food during lunch time. I brought up the subject of testimonies and asked why no one ever stood up to thank God for the hardships that they go through. I am talking about financial ,struggles ,sicknesses ,businesses closing down and so much more. We only thank God for the good things but when we are in trouble we blame the same God for not being there to prevent the problems. Like little children ,have we reduced God to a level where we only thank him for the sweets and toys? When the elder asked for testimonies during the church service ,I wanted to stand up and give a testimony ,thanking God for all the family and financial challenges I am going through but I hesitated because many do not understand the depth of my faith and belief . Sounds controversial ? God is to be thanked and praised even when we are experiencing the worst of the worst. Otherwise God is not good and excellent all the time.