By Ps. Margret Glade
Today our encouragement is on thanksgiving
Psalm 100 v4
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
When reading the verse i read it as an instruction not a request. David here is telling us to come to The Lord with praise and thankfulness for who He is in our lives. So often instead of giving thanks we come with a request list, when all we need to do is thanking Him for being our Father, The great I Am in our lives. Thanking Him for being The Alpha and Omega The Beginning and The End. He is Jehovah Jireh our provider, Jehovah Rapha our healer and we can go on. Ladies the fact you are reading this today is reason enough to give Him thanks, you woke up this morning it is grace indeed. Many people went to bed last night, but they did not see the light of day. It is God who has raised you up this morning, who gives you the air you are breathing. We have reason to thank God for a New day filled with New mercy.
I am reminded of a story in Acts 16 v 16 – 34 (please read)
It’s a story of Paul and Silas. The bible says they were praying for people and doing God’s work, when a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit ‘” in our terms” of fortune telling. This girl brought her master’s lots of money by doing that. What is so amazing of this is VERSE 17 Reads; This girl followed Paul and the rest of us ” SHOUTING ….These men are servants of The Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved’ The bible says she did this for many days.
What I found amazing is that although she had the spirit in her, she knew they were servants of The Most High.
If people see us walking in the street, or at work or even at home what do they say? Can family friends or colleagues say they see Jesus in us? (just something to think about)
We read Paul commanded the spirit to leave her and it left immediately. The result is Paul and Silas were beaten up, their hands and legs tied and thrown into jail. The bible says that at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. In Spite of them being beaten thrown into jail for actually setting her free (they were not in a good place right) YET they praised God anyway.
1 Thes 16 v 18 reads
Pray continually give thanks in ALL circumstances for this is Gods will for us in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 136 v 1
Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 95 v 2
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving let us shout joyfully to Him with Psalms
Psalm 117 v 24
This is the day The Lord has made. let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 26 v 7
That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of your wondrous works.
Ladies these are just a few, in God’s word there are many more scriptures concerning praise and thanksgiving.
Now Nowhere in the bible are we told to praise God and give thanks only in the good times. Thanks giving is being thankful for the good and the bad, know that the bad is also part of the shaping and moulding you into what God wants you to be.
Paul and Silas in the midst of being thrown into jail continued to praise God which caused the prison to shake the doors opened and shackles unlocked from the prisoners. I believe it must have been The presence of God there that caused no one to escape and just standing in awe of what happened. The bible says the guard and his family got know The Lord.
The question to us reading this blog, do we just praise God in the good times? Jesus showed us the perfect example knowing who was going to betray Him, yet He did not fight or have any bitterness and anger toward Judas, or even toward those who crucified Him. Instead, Jesus prayed ” Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing”
Today is a day we can look back from where we started to where we are today, we are here still alive with breath in our lungs. Hallelujah!!!!
We see the hand of God on our lives we have reason to give thanks and praise to God. You might ask why….Well its June 2024 how many people that started January 2024 with us, yet they are no more. Psalm 150 v 6 says ‘ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
No doubt we all face trials we go through challenges , but looking back we can only say ‘ Had it not been for The Lord who was on my side.
Ladies God has seen your tears, He has seen your struggles even the times you felt like giving up. Let me encourage you not to give up, press on toward the mark of The High calling. Joshua 1 v 5 reads
No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU”
Psalm 9 v 1 – 2 ESV
“I will give thanks to The Lord with my whole heart: I will recount all of your wonderful deeds, I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High”
May you look back from where God has taken you, see His hand upon your life and Give Him thanks.
Have a blessed day