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GIVING THANKS TO GOD

Melrosechurch.org

Jesus' response to the pharisees who demanded that he should rebuke his disciples at his triumphant entry to Jerusalem is a very instructive one, He had responded that, "…if these should hold their peace, the stones will immediately cry out", signalling that God gets his praise from the entirety of his creation and as such, if any created group deem themselves too important, there are more than enough alternatives to step into that void. Most of the times, the discourse about giving thanks to God is often steered along the course of why we should do it and what happens if we do it, albeit, we often overlook the undesirable outcome of not doing the same. Jesus' response paints a gory picture of disgraceful replacement and sidelining for those who do not see reason to thank God.
  
As revealed in revelations 4:11, our major preocuppation as creatures of God should be to worship him with all we are and have, and as matter of fact, one the major expressions of our worship to God is giving him thanks. This should be our attitude when things are rosy as well as when things turns gloomy. It was Apostle Paul who wrote to the philippians to always give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God,…The moment we start seeing thanksgiving in this light, it will flow from us effortlessly, in a way that is devoid of anything mechanical.

An interesting story in the scriptures come to mind and that is the story of Leah, Jacob's first wife. In Genesis 29:31, it was recorded that the Lord saw that Leah was not only below in the pecking order for Jacob, she was also hated, as Jacob preferred Rachel. But as a way of somehow vindicating Leah, God opened her womb but Rachel was barren. She gave birth to her first child and named him Reuben- a name aimed at taking a dig at her husband; then she had the second who was named Simeon, a name which still reflected that she has not got over the hate; then she conceived again and gave birth to Levi, this time trying to win over her husband but when she got to the fourth born, she took a new turn, the child was named Judah, which connotes 'Praise'.

It was quite appalling that it took Leah the birth of four sons before she realised the goodness of God over her life. For someone who was hated, not preferred, sidelined and regarded as second fiddle, getting a child before the perceived favourite comes with some bragging rights and the tendency to get back at her hater[Jacob] but this bitterness should have stopped with the birth of the first son but instead, with the birth of each child, she upped the temperature of the already volatile home by continually disguising her innuendos in the suggestive names she gave to her sons. It wasn't until the birth of Judah that she realised that she has been very ungrateful, embittered and selfish all along.

Later in life, a look at the life trajectory of the first three sons suggests that the awful circumstances within which they were born have caught up with them: Reuben, whose name suggests Leah's desperate crave for Jacob's attention went on to have an affair with his stepmother [Bilah]; Simeon, who was a clear expression of her mother's bitterness, went on to claim one of the bloodiest revenge in biblical history and as follow up, Leah used Levi's birth to still harp on the same point as Simeon's, and so it wasn't much of a surprise that he accompanied Simeon to that Shechem massacre! And would it have sparked any surprise that it was from the tribe of Judah that the saviour of the world came from? This teaches us a very important lesson; and it is to always have an attitude of thanksgiving even when things are not going too well for us. When we harbour bitterness and unforgivenness, it pollutes our mind and spirit and we end up seeing every goodness of God as a way of getting even with the person with whom we are aggrieved. We fail to see the big picture and end up short-circuiting the impact of God's favour and goodness over us. 

In the story of Leah, God has turned to favour her by opening her womb first, thereby creating a sure pathway through which the Messiah will come from her line but instead, she allowed bitterness cloud her vision and with each conception, she went on disrupting the grand plan of God. God could have turned over to Rachel but perhaps, He was bidding his time, waiting for Leah to repent of her evil. So, when God looks at Reuben, Simeon and Levi, they do not fit in his grand master plan of redemption not because they were inherently disqualified from birth but by the unwise actions of their mother, however, at the end, Leah did the right thing, at the birth of Judah, she struck a cord in the eternal realm; he who will be progenitor of the saviour must be offered in thanks to God, in a similar fashion that Jesus will be offered as propitiation for our sins. This also explains why an innumerable company of Angels appeared to the shepherds praising God when Jesus Christ was born.

Other important stories worthy of note are the stories of Jeshosaphat and the multiplication of the loaves; both of these stories establishes the immense potency of praising God and giving him thanks. Thanksgiving proved to be a veritable weapon through which Judah defeated their enemies on many occasions and in the famous story of Paul and Silas in a Phillipian prison, they were only praising God and their deliverance came in one of the most dramatic ways (Acts 16:25-26). On many occasions, Jesus would also thank his father in heaven before performing some miracles and the result has been unprecedented. Learn the art of thanksgiving today, for by it you shall enter effortlessly into the courts of God and do your necessary legislation as kings and priests.    

   

   

   





   

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