Who He Is, I

Ps.50:²³ “… giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honours me.” (emphasis added)

When you are grateful, you cannot really be anxious. When you actually worship, you cannot be worrying, they cannot coexist. You have to choose one, is it going to be worry or is it going to be worship? Is it going to be anxiety or is it going to be gratitude? Craig Groeschel says, ‘You do not always have the power to control, but you always have the power to surrender.’ Everybody has the power to surrender. The area of your life where you feel the most anxious is the area of your life where you have surrendered the least. The area of your life where you feel the most peace, is the area of your life where you have surrendered the most. Gratitude is actually giving control to God; it is an act of surrendering to God.

God wants gratitude to be a lifestyle for us, God wants all the parts of our being, every compartment of our lives and destinies to be surrendered to Him. So, that we can be filled with gratitude, and overflow with gratitude. We are going to look at the fundamentals of giving thanks because giving thanks truly honours God and your life will truly honour God in the Name of Jesus. Say Amen! The fundamentals of thanksgiving can be summed up in Three Whys. Why should I live a life that gives thanks to God? And there are Five Hows to living a life that truly honours God. You can know why you should pass an exam and not know how to pass the exam. So we will start with the why, why should my life give God thanks?

The first reason why my life and your life should give God thanks is Because Of Who God Is. Ps. 145:³ “The Lord is GREAT. He is worthy of our praise. No one can understand how great he is.” (ICB, emphasis added). So, if God is big enough to create the universe, God is big enough to solve your problem, and He is worthy to be praised. God is not only GREAT, God is also HOLY. Ps. 97:¹² “May all who are godly be happy in the Lord and crown him, our holy God..” (LB, emphasis added). No one in the universe can compare with God, He is pure, He is perfect, He is faultless. God is completely faultless so when you think about His holiness it should generate gratitude. We should be filled with thanks because God is great, God is holy, and because God is LOVE. Ps.107:⁸ “….Give thanks to the Lord for his UNFAILING LOVE.” (NIV, emphasis added).

No one on earth is capable of loving you like God, no one! One of the greatest disservices you can do to a human being is to put on him or her what only God can provide. We see this play out a lot in marriages; one of the greatest disservices you can do to your spouse is to put on him or her the burden that only God can fill. It is not going to work; the person will crumble under that weight. The only person that can love you totally and completely is God. God is JUST. Ps. 7:¹⁷ “I will thank the Lord because he is JUST….” He is unprejudiced, He is just, He cannot be manipulated. He is always right, He is just.

Prayer: Father, You are Great, Holy, Love, and Just and I worship You, in Jesus Name. Amen!