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Tag: gratitude

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Grateful Hearts: Reflecting on the Goodness of God

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” (Psalm 100:1-5)

Psalm 100 is like the churches dress rehearsal for heaven. The Jubilate as this Psalm has been termed was daily used by both the ancient Jews and the earliest Christians in the worship of God, and it is still sung today as the Old One Hundredth. This Psalm, from (v.1) is a call for ALL people to “shout to the Lord!”  It is a call to delight in, rejoice over, and brag on the self-existent and eternal God. It is a time to rejoice in the God of all creation.

Is that how we come into God’s house? Do we come in rejoicing?

The late pastor J. Vernon McGee said, “I would emphasize the fact that God does not want you to (regularly) come before Him with a long face.” Adding, “at the time of this writing most of the bars have what is called a “happy hour.” I wish we had a “happy hour” in church, without the liquid. Let us tune up and get ready to worship the Lord.” [i]  

Because God is Good, Joyfully Serve Him

(vv.1-2) “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.”

It has been suggested that because of the psalmists call for All of the earth to “raise a shout for the Lord” (Psalm 100:1 Septuagint) that this psalm points to the honor of Jesus the Messiah especially during His millennial reign on the earth (Rev,. 20:1-4). It suggests a time of the universal praise and adoration of Jesus; a time as one commentator put it, “when the entire world will recognize and sing ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come!’”

This is not to say that the world at large has nothing for which to thank the Lord today. His common grace – the sunrise and the rain (Matt, 5:45), His kindness (Luke 6:35), His patience (2 Peter 3:9), His compassion (Psalm 145:9) but I dare say that until a lost soul realizes the grace of God upon his life through faith in Jesus, he will not recognize those common graces at all. Thus, only the faithful will shout joyfully to the Lord both now and forever more!

Not only are we to joyfully shout but we are also to gleefully serve the Lord – (v.2) “serve the Lord with gladness.” It is rare when you find someone so spiritually free and filled with the presence of the Lord that their service is expressed as true worship. The Tanakh (another name for the Hebrew Bible) substitutes the word worship for service and makes the powerful connection between everything we do being done to glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31).

Finally, in the first stanza of this psalm we are told to “come before His presence with singing.” With renânâh – joyful singing.

Why? Why should God be worshipped so robustly?

(v.3) offers the answer “Know that the Lord, He is God!”  There is no other God who created us – mankind has made many gods in his own mind and with his own hands, but God is God. He is God – unapproachably high or supreme: (v.3b) “He made us” and frankly, I think that the second part of that is a translational error as there is no conceivable way that we physically made ourselves. On the other hand, many of us think that we are self-made men and women. “I did that!” We say: “I am who I am because of my labor, my effort, my knowledge, my ability, my talent.” This was the mentality in Laodicea in (Rev.3:17) where they said: “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do(did) not know that you (they were) are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—” With these words, I think we are reminded that not only apart from God are we nothing but we also that we desperately need Him. The Tanakh translates the phrase “He made us and not we ourselves” as “He made us, and we are His.”

We worship Him because we have been bought at the price of His Son’s precious blood. (1 Cor. 6:20, 1 Peter 1:19). We worship Him not only because of His unapproachable greatness but also because of His intimate nearness: (v.3c) “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” We are His sheep who believe upon the name of Jesus. We are those sheep over whom the Lord the Shepherd (John 10:14-16) and because He is our Shepherd, not only “shall we not” but we DO NOT WANT or lack for any good thing now or in the eternal future.

Because God is Good, Praise and Worship Him

(v.4) “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.”

This being a call to spiritual thanksgiving we should bring the sacrifice of praise. The writer of Hebrews defines this in (Heb. 13:15): “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” We are to come into His house with thanksgiving and praise because God is good.

We bless the Lord – we adore Him for all He has done and for who He is in actuality and to us. As we said, in actuality His is the Most-High God but to us He is Abba Father – and “because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses” making us “alive with Christ.” (Eph. 2:4-5). We thank Him for His salvation. We thank Him because (v.5) “His mercy is everlasting” – “through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, (Lam. 3:22-23) because His compassions fail not, they are new every morning: great is your faithfulness!” The word ʾĕmûnâh translated truth in our bible is rendered faithfulness in the Tanakh where it concludes: “His faithfulness is for all generations.” In (Psalm 40) David declared that God had “put a new song in his mouth – praise to our God.”  Going further, David said: “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” (Psalm 40:3, 5)

God (Eph. 1:3) “has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

Jesus has (Rev. 1:5-6) “washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father – to Him be glory and dominion forever!”

We all have things to be grateful for here. Like Hannah for her son (1 Sam. 1:10-19), Hezekiah for his healing (2 Kings 20:1-6), David for his victory (1 Sam 17:45-47), and Solomon for his wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-14), God has answered, God has been merciful, God has provided, and God has been present.

Christian, there is one thing about which you exclusively have reason to be grateful. Unlike Hannah, Hezekiah, David, or Solomon, you KNOW that you have been redeemed from a devil’s Hell – a real and everlasting torment to be experinced by all who refuse the salvation of the Lord through Jesus Christ. If you were the poorest person in the poorest country in the world, because the priceless treasure of eternal life which you recieved as a grace through Jesus Christ from our forgiving God you have something for which to be forever, joyfully grateful.

The Lord has given but He has also taken away. Up against our sense of gratitude at this time of year presses grief.

To Serve and Worship God Well – Count Your Blessings

(1 Thess. 5:18) “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Some people never need to be told to do that because gratitude is engrained into the DNA of their character, while others have to be encouraged constantly because complaint is a part of theirs.

Which are you?

Do we not have much to be thankful for?

Some of the things for which I am thankful are:

The words of the preacher who once told me that Jesus loves Me. The song of the Cardinal. The roar of the surf. The crunch of fresh fallen snow under my boots. The laughter of my wife. The playful antics of my children and grandchildren. The silence of a calm morning, and the noise of a windy one. The clang of a rope gently beating against the flagpole to which an American flag is tethered, and I am thankful for my health.

That is a brief list of the things for which I am thankful.

But what if I had cancer?

What if I was blind, or deaf?

What if I was imprisoned in a hospital room too weak to go anywhere?

What if everyone I have ever loved was gone and I was all alone?

Could I be thankful in circumstances like those? Could you?

Some of you are in one of these situations right now.

Should we let our grief cancel our gratitude? Job did not. Twice he was stricken severely and twice he responded in a way that expresses gratitude in the worst of situations:

(Job 1:21) “And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.””

(Job 2:10) “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”

The fact is, that we have innumerable reasons for which to be thankful from the only God worthy of our gratitude. Some of you are hurting this season. You hurt because something or someone you had is missing from your life this year. To be thankful right now, you may need to see the world and your life through a different lens. Consider George Matheson, Scottish minister and hymnwriter of the late 19th century known as “the blind preacher” who had all but completely lost his eyesight by age 18. Once he prayed: “My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn. I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn.”[ii]

My prayer for those who are hurting during this season is that you can thank God anyway. He has given. He did bless. He may have taken; and yet for all of these He is still to be praised; may His presence be enough to carry you through this time. To all I say: May your season of Thanks and Giving – be full of reflection God’s goodness and many blessings in your life and may your mouths full of praise to His holy name!

[i] McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed., Vol. 2, p. 822). Thomas Nelson.

[ii] Shenton, T. (2006). Opening up 1 Thessalonians (pp. 109–110). Leominster: Day One Publications.

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A Reflection on Thanksgiving

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”  (Philippians 4:8–9)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! This morning, I’d like to share a brief reflection on thanksgiving.

When I think about gratitude – when I think about being thankful, I always find myself thinking of the converse of thankfulness as well because we are naturally prone to complain.  Being thankful or unthankful seems to depend on what our minds are focused on.  If we focus on what we lack, we’re going to be ungrateful. If we focus on what we have, we’re going to be grateful. That’s why I think Paul is on to something with that statement that he made to the Philippian church quoted above.  If there is anything praiseworthy, think on – “meditate (reflect) on these things.” In fact, he goes further. He says, “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, lovely, and of good report – meditate on these things.”

Today, you may come to the Thanksgiving table with many grievances. I dare say all of us can think of some things to complain about. And yet, for the cancer patient who has come into remission – I’m sure that gratitude rather than complaint fills their heart today; they would give thanks for their recovery. For many of us today, layoffs have either come or are on our horizon and even with pay increases, its been hard to make ends meet. The state of the economy has wreaked havoc on us; focusing on these things however will not lead to our gratitude, but to complaint.  However, when we focus on the fact that we still have a home, we still have a family, we still have a job, and above all believer: we are still recipients of the grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ, then we have SO MUCH to be grateful for. I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of ingratitude; however, while humbling, I don’t think that pointing to the fact that others may have it worse than you is the best way to inspire a heart of gratitude. It is true, it is always true that someone else has it worse than you or I but there must be something more that drives our gratitude than the fact that we have it better than the other guy. 

As I write, I wonder if you and I, under the poorest and saddest of circumstances could be grateful If all we had in this life was a relationship with Jesus – would that be enough? Would you agree that if we have Jesus, we always have something for which to be grateful to God about?

Paul himself said a few verses later in the above passage: (v.11) “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” He learned how to be content with a little or a lot; in either case he was grateful because Jesus was enough.  Frankly, many Christ followers could take a lesson from Paul on what it is to be grateful simply because what we have begins with Jesus: Eternal life, salvation, grace mercy, forgiveness; if Jesus isn’t enough, we’ll always be complaining. I know this too, that nothing in this world can truly satisfy – whatever you have of it, you’re always going to want more of. It’s difficult to be thankful when you’re always chasing after more. So, as we sit down to our Thanksgiving meal, whatever it might be, however much or however little, is there something you can be thankful for today?

One parting thought: Our gratitude should be our life song. We praise God from a heart of gratitude; we obey God from a heart of gratitude; we serve God from a heart of gratitude, and we love God from a heart of gratitude; not just on Thanksgiving; not just one day a year or every Sunday – gratitude is to be the pattern of our lives, our hearts song. Our life song. I’m grateful for the God who saved and is always patient with me. What are you grateful for today?

Happy Thanksgiving.

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A Grateful Witness

“There is an old Jewish legend which says that, after God had created the world, He called the angels to Him and asked them what they thought of it; and one of them said, “One thing is lacking: the sound of praise to the Creator.” So, God created music, and it was heard in the whisper of the wind, and in the song of the birds; and to man also was given the gift of song.”[i]

Thinking about the praise due our Creator Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Doth not all nature around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Doth not the lightning write His name in letters of fire? Hath not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I, silent be?”

When I consider all the reasons to thank and praise God today; two immediately come to mind:

God gives.

God gives “life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), “power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18), “food to the hungry” (Psalm 146:10), “hope” (Romans 15:13), “grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34), “wisdom” (Proverbs 2:6), “power to the weak” (Isaiah 40:29), “rain on the earth” (Job 5:10), “songs in the night” (Job 35:10),  “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

God gave.

God gave us “His Son” (John 3:16), “His righteousness, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (Romans 3:22), “eternal life” (1 John 5:11), “His Spirit” (Romans 5:5 and 2 Corinthians 5:5)

Because the Lord redeems, the psalmist wrote in (Psalm 107:1-3)

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.”

Psalm 107 is about God’s mercy toward sinful rebels who finally come to see their need of rescue, cry out for it, receive it and then joyfully rejoice in the rescue and the rescuer. God’s grace and mercy revealed to and outpoured upon them gave them a story to tell!

Likewise, each of you who has believed that what Jesus did through His death, burial and resurrection, He did for you personally – has a story to tell!

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”

It is when we tell our story that we truly communicate the goodness of God and declare His wonderful works. Can we but give grateful witness to our God among those around us and in the assembly of His people in the church? Our story is “the song of the redeemed,” it is the “celebration and love song borne of a grateful choir” as the Newsboys lyric states. Our story is life changing, inspiring and worth telling. Our story is the gospel according to us and it tells of the power of God to deliver captives, restore hope and instill within all who trust in the Lord – peace.

This Thanksgiving, your story is bound to touch someone close to you – if you’ll tell it.

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!”

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods.” (1 Chronicles 16:8-10, 23–25)

Go, tell your story!

To listen to the full message please click this link: https://www.thetextmessages.org/sermons/810/

[i] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 479). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.

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