And besides, God is good. Surely bad things do not come from His hand. The apostle Paul, who had been in prison, flogged, received forty lashes five times from the Jew's, stoned, three times beaten with rods and shipwrecked, etc., etc. You see, thanking God, even for the reversals of life, demonstrates our trust in the God who has allowed those reversals to come. We don't have to feel thankful in order to give thanks.
Thanksgiving is a way of saying yes to life.
It will open the heart to trust God in the midst of all of life's circumstances. And the peace of God, which transcends human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. They could kneel to pray with all their troubles bearing down upon them. But let that weak brother and that poor sister try entering the place of prayer by way of the gates of thanksgiving. An altogether different story would unfold.