FIVE STEPS TO THANKSGIVING: STEP 5 | Enter Into His Gates
Brothers and sisters, thanksgiving is not an arbitrary concept. Thanksgiving is a consequence of our faithful response to God, Himself.
Brothers and sisters, thanksgiving is not an arbitrary concept. Thanksgiving is a consequence of our faithful response to God, Himself.
Though many of us acknowledge Jehovah as God, we still find it hard to submit our lives completely to Him. We still try to steer our own ship; we still want to chart our own course. We daily make decisions without ever consulting the One we claim is our God.
God wants to change that.
This call to intimacy, is crucial: God already knows us; this is our opportunity to get to know Him, to know Him deeply, to know Him intimately.
We must learn to serve God before we can offer Him true praise, true thanksgiving.
The first step to thanksgiving… is learning to take our eyes off our concerns, our feelings, our hang-ups and focusing on Him, exclusively. We must first forget our selves to truly praise our God.
Today, since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians are now the ones appointed to GIVE THANKS; because Believers are the royal priesthood of God (1 Peter 2:9-10). It is Believers who must show the world how to GIVE THANKS to God!
Many of us struggle with sin in our lives and with that struggle comes shame and a sense of worthlessness. Eventually, we question whether God will even come near us, whether God could even work through us. Sometimes we get so low, that we pull ourselves away from serving Him, because we feel so unlovable…
God’s wondrous works: the harmony of everything in the universe, declares, shouts, that He is near. God is not far away so that we can’t reach Him or know Him.
When God blesses us, let us not praise ourselves or our strengths/abilities. Instead, let us praise and GIVE THANKS to Him.
“How does a mother bury her fourth child?” “How does a father go home without a job to return to and with bills to pay?” But we know God IS good. We know He has made a way for us. We know that even when we are faithless, He IS faithful.