Thank God.
I was sitting at church today when an image came on the screen that was really familiar to me. The images are everywhere – people in a vacant room, falling to their knees in despair, ready to cry out to God for help.
Every time I see one of these images I can’t help but think about how much we blame God. We blame him for the bad in our life, but are more than willing to cry out to him when our life gets to be more than we can handle. Do we ever stop to thank God for the things he’s given us?
1 Chronicles 16:8 tells us to “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.” I think a lot us fail at this with the first task we are given. We do not call upon God to give him thanks for sending his Son to die in our place. We do not thank God for the blessings He has showered down upon us, no matter how small. If we can’t even tell God how much we appreciate all that He is doing for us, how can we spread the word of how great He is to others?
We are not willing to give God thanks, but I can guarantee that many people are more than willing to ask God to thrown in a few miracles and blessings here and there. How selfish can we be? Phillipians 4:6 instructs us to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” We can’t just simply pray to God and order up something like we’re in the drive-thru lane at McDonald’s. We have to tell Him how grateful we are that we can call upon Him and that HE WILL ANSWER US.
I know that I am guilty of this. But what Christian isn’t? I’m leaving you with a challenge, in the form of 2 Corinthians 9:14. Tomorrow, take a look at your life and see where God is working in it. Then I want you to say this verse and mantra:
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”
August 20, 2007 at 12:20 pm
When I used to go to church and learned about prayer, I learned to always start by giving thanks for all the many blessings we are given. Afterwards, if there was any guidance you needed, you could ask, knowing that the answer may not come in the manner expected (it could be a no) but it would be answered.