Worthy!

Ps. 96:⁸ “Credit Him with the glory worthy of His magnificent name;  gather your sacrifice, and present it at His temple..” (VOICE)

God is worthy; to be worthy is to be deserving. We had a full house growing up; six children with two [sometimes three] cousins staying with us. Eba [a Nigerian dish] was our constant lunch, Mondays to Saturdays, except on Sundays. That is one of the reasons why we love Jesus so much because He gave us the opportunity to eat pounded yam or rice on Sundays. There was a time we were all eating from the same bowl. The huge mountain of eba and soup with pieces of meat counted, in different sizes is served in a huge bowl. But the challenge for me was, when it came to the picking of meat, there was this hierarchy in the house. The firstborn picks the piece of meat he wants, then the second born will pick the piece of meat he wants.

I am the third but one of my cousins that was with us was just four, okay five days older than me. And she too will pick before me. First, second, third… I was usually not happy with the pieces of meat left. So, I devised a strategy; while everyone is focused on eating, I am waiting and watching. When they least expect it, I will wrap the biggest piece of meat in eba and throw it into my mouth. They will pounce on me, and punches will begin to land. They will put their hands in my mouth in an attempt to rescue the meat. But, too late! The piece of meat is gone! ‘I refuse to be cheated in this house!’, I thought. Why should they pick before me every time? If we rotate who picks first, I can live with that. I said to myself, why are they deserving? Why is my cousin who is four, okay five days older than me worthy of picking before me? Is it because she came out five days earlier? I felt it was unfair. But the God we serve is worthy of our thanksgiving, He is deserving.

God is worthy of our praise and of our worship. We are not just thanking Him because of some hierarchical order. We are not just thanking Him because if we do not thank Him, He will break our heads. If God does that, there will be nobody alive on earth today. We thank Him because He deserves our worship, He deserves our praise. Firstly, we thank God because of Who He is. Ps. 97:^12b “Give thanks to God as you remember how holy he is.” (GW, emphasis added). Ps.118:¹ “Tell the Lord how thankful you are, because he is kind and always merciful.” (CEV, emphasis added). God is not sometimes merciful; this scripture says He is always merciful. We should live a life of thanksgiving to God because of who He is. The second reason is because of what He has done, because of what He has done. Ps. 52:^9a “I will thank you God forever for what you have done.” (NCV, emphasis added). Ps.148:⁵ “Let all things praise the name of the Lord, because we were created at his command.” (CEV, emphasis added). Ps. 9:^14b “I will praise you and rejoice because you saved me!” (NCV, emphasis added). So, we thank God not only because of who He is, even though that is enough reason. But we also thank Him because of what He has done.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for who You are, and I thank You for all You have done for me, in Jesus Name. Amen!