"I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD - in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord." - Psalm 116:17-19
DIFFICULT GIVING GOD THANKS
Friends, it's not easy to be thankful, especially towards God, when we are undergoing various painful trials. Just look around us and things seem pretty gloomy. I believe it's the devil's desire to have the human-race view this "God-created" world as a world full of devastation and hopelessness. Why? To get us to blame, curse God, and eventually reject God's existence.
THE POWER OF STANDING FAITHFUL
Having said this, there is something so mighty, so astonishing, so profound and beyond human reasoning, so glorious that such a response must bring praises upon all the heavenly hosts, and that is this: when we, as the likes of Job, stand faithfully firm and declare that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO ME, I will live to bless my Lord - my God, and bring honor and glory to His Name's sake! Though He gives and takes away, BLESSED IT BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!
GIVING GOD THANKSGIVING IS POSSIBLE NO MATTER OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
We know God entered into this world, suffered severely through Jesus Christ (God's Son making God's love fully known) and provided a way where DEATH IS NO LONGER. Jesus Christ has made it possible to receive His Life through the Holy Spirit that not even death is able to take away. "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" - John 11:25-26
No matter what happens to us "physically" we will always have life with God spiritually in Christ that CAN NOT BE SEPARATED (Rom. 8:38-39)!
GOD IS GOOD!
In the words of Spurgeon, "Some Christians are prone to look on the dark side of everything and to dwell more upon what they have through than upon what God has done for them... It is true that we endure trials, but it is just as true that we are delivered out of them... The deeper our troubles, the louder our thanks to God who has led us through and preserved us. Our griefs cannot mar the melody of our praise; we reckon them to be the bass of our life's song: "He had done great things for us, wherof we are glad."
May we offer to God our life of thanksgiving through our obedience and continual praises declaring GOD IS GOOD!
Thankful for God's goodness,
Pastor Trevor