The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

UV 965/10,000 The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5 v 18 We need to offer the fruit of our lips –thanksgiving for every small and big blessing in our lives, for every situation, seemingly bad or good, for every person we know or relate to, for every opportunity as well as crisis, for good health and healing, for strength and wisdom, for knowledge and understanding, for the Word and for every promise of God. Our eyes will be opened to see and to be able to count the innumerable blessings of life that we take for granted every day. We need to thank God for His wonderful plan for the salvation of man and of each one of us through His Son Jesus. The more things we are grateful to the Lord for, the more we will have to be grateful for. It will produce an increasing feeling of blessedness in our lives. It will produce joy and contentment. When we are continually thanking the Lord, the enemy of our souls will not have an opportunity to infiltrate our minds. We will be drawn closer and closer to the Lord in faith and in love. Thanksgiving implies that our hearts are humble before the Lord. We are not proud or independent minded that we are ashamed to acknowledge the extent of our indebtedness to the Lord. Thanksgiving is the sacrifice of a believing heart and mind. It pleases the heart of God who will say, “ here is a faithful servant. Let me bless him or her even more.” We need to thank God for even the suffering we have gone through. Though this may be difficult at the time we are going through it, after we have endured it, we can thank the Lord for the faith, humility, character, patience and strength it built in us. When the early apostles faced violent death at the hands of their Roman and other persecutors, they thanked the Lord that they were found worthy to die as martyrs for Him. The latter were astonished that many of them died with songs of praise and thanksgiving on their lips. Thanksgiving ahead of even receiving answers to prayers is a mark of great faith and ushers in the answers we are seeking. When we see a peron who is limping or paralysed, we can thank the Lord for giving us healthy limbs and do our bit to ease the lot of the one that prompted us to thank the Lord. When we see someone who is poor and underprivileged, we can thank the Lord for all that He has given us in His grace and mercy and seek to help that person. When we see a person who is sick and ailing, we can thank the Lord for our health and pray for that person’s healing. This is what is meant by thanking the Lord in all that we do and say. Thanksgiving increases the degree of our anointing and filling with the Holy Spirit. It will increase the fruit of the Spirit as well as the gifts of the Spirit in us. Prateep V Philip