Day 6 of “7 days of walking with God” devotional SATURDAY GIVE THANKS TO HIM Psalm 100:4b Give thanks to Him and praise His name. Several years ago when I was first starting out in ministry I received a call that a young lady in our Church who was pregnant lost her child late in the pregnancy. I went to the hospital to just be there because God knows I had nothing to offer. Not even sure if I would be welcomed at such a private and painful time but I hurt for the family, so I went. The hospital rooms for labor and delivery were laid out in an interesting fashion, in that, before the entrance of the two rooms there was a small, very small foyer which joined the two rooms. A little love seat to the left as you entered and a small counter on the right with a sink and a few items. Two doors, each leading to two family style labor and delivery rooms. As I approached the foyer I could here laughter and joy coming from the room on the left and weeping coming from the room on the right. I’m quite sure if I would have entered the room on the left the family would have been saying things such as “God is good” and “praise His name, God has so blessed us” all of which would be true. To be honest all I remember were tears in the room on the right, just tears. I can’t tell you if one word was spoken, Im sure there was but to this day I have know idea what if any. As hard as this is to write it is the truth that we must be grounded in. God was good in both of those rooms that day and today God is still good and today we can still praise His name as the Psalmist admonishes us to do. In Job 1:20, Job has just buried all 10 of his children. TEN! Notice Job’s default position right after the funeral service. Job 1:20 “Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD.” Full disclosure, open and transparency from your pastor. I am not there, YET! And full disclosure in Jobs life, he was a man with feet of clay just like you and I and he didn’t stay there long. Chapter 1 he is praising God, Chapter 3 he cusses the day he was born - full blown depression! I hate the day I was born, he says, I hate the days Im in and why can’t I just die now I don’t want to live. But his default was, God gives and He is good, God takes away and He is good. Our circumstances do not determine wether God is good or not. I didn’t plan on getting this heavy on a saturday morning, I normally save it for Sunday. God is GOOD! “Give thanks to Him and Praise His name”, thats our text this morning! The more we do that on a daily basis soon we will find out it becomes our default position in the deep trials of life. The less we Give thanks to Him and praise His name on a daily basis our default position and quite possibly our permanent emotional residence is depression despair. Tragedy will come and when it does its a humanly impossible task to learn a theology of suffering when your in the midst of the storm. Sometimes we have to go to the pit, the bottom of the barrel to recognize we have so much to be thankful for. Thats where we have been so far this morning but I don’t want stay there. We have so much to give thanks to God for. What about our salvation? Romans 5:8 (HCSB) 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Praise God for His unconditional, preemptive love for us! “Give thanks to Him and praise His name.” I love reading Psalm 51 out of the message version it reads this way in verse 10 “God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” David was repenting and he recognizes the mess he has made out of his life and he pens all of Psalm 51. We know that God forgave him and I know God will do the same thing for us. “Give thanks to Him and praise His name.” There is so much to give thanks to God. As you walk with Him today, practice it, commit this day to be a day of giving thanks to Him and praising His name. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. Psalm 100:4b
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 11:49:31 +0000
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