WHAT SHALL I RENDER: PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

WHAT SHALL I RENDER: PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

Psalm 116:11-19. "...... verse 17, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LorD....". We must render praise and thanksgiving unto God. The human mind many times is constrained to focus on the things that are not there. Many times, we do not forget the things that are very important that God has made available even before we ask. God does not bless us or show mercy or good to us because he wants us to thank him, but he expects us to consider his goodness to us and come back to give praise and thanksgiving to him. Leviticus 22:29 says “When you offer a thanksgiving offering unto the lord, offer it at your own will”.

 Do not offer thanksgiving to God grudgingly, let it be from your heart and not that you are compelled. Luke 17:12-19 is the story of 10 lepers that Jesus cleansed, but only 9 came back to thank Jesus. Though Jesus did not tell them to come and thank him later, he expected them to. Only one leper came back to thank Jesus. Luke 6:35 says “He is kind unto the unthankful and the evil man”. This shows that an unthankful man is placed in the same category with the evil man. Rom 1:21 says “They knew God but did not glorify him as God but became vain in their imagination”. Habakkuk 3:17 says ”...The labor of the olive shall fail....Yet will i rejoice in the lord, i will rejoice in the Lord, i will be joyful in the God of my salvation” , Giving thanks is supposed to be a part of us even when things don’t go well with us. Isaiah 43:21 says “this people have i formed for myself: they shall shew forth my praise...” There are times we do not feel like praising God, but we must know that we have been designed for praise and thanksgiving unto God.In Acts 16:25-28, Paul and Silas, they prayed and praised God even in prison and the solders heard them and the Holy ghost came down and the gates were opened and everyone became loosed 

 In 2 Kings 19:17, Hezekiah was troubled because the kings of Asyria has destroyed the nations and the land. Hezekiah later became a source of encouragement to others concerning the defeat of Asyria because of his believe that God will deliver him, and God delivered them. Then in 2 Chron 32:24-25, Hezekiah was ill and prayed,

God answered him, but he did not render thanksgiving to God therefore the Lord wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. The one song Isrealites will always sing is “the lord is good and his mercies endureth forever”.

That is the starting point of everything the psalmist is saying we should thank God for he healeth all thy diseases and redeems our lives from destruction. There are many benefits from God that are intangible and for the mercies we have from God we must continue to thank God.

Thanksgiving

In Matt 11:25- Jesus thanked God for revelation

In John 6:11-There was thanksgiving for provision. Jesus thanked God for the small bread and it multiplied.

In John 11:41- Jesus thanked God before calling forth Lazarus. Even dead things receive resurrection power in the place of thanksgiving.

In Jeremiah 30:19- The songs of thanksgiving shall come and God will add to their numbers

In Genesis 39:48- Judah means praise and God said he is the one his brethren will praise.

Part of the signs of the end time is that people will be unthankful. We need to constantly live a life of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving spices our prayer. Philippians 4:6” ...let your request be made known with thanksgiving”. A life of thanksgiving will be peaceful.

 There is a way we are not to thank God as seen in Luke 18:11,"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." In this passage the Pharisee’s thanksgiving was done with the intention to bring glory to himself.

Let us pray this prayer “Lord you have been good, we thank you for everything. For God has not given us as a prey to the dogs and our soul is escaped from the snare of the fowler. We have every reason to thank you God.”

For our praise to be effective we need to repent of our sins by joining the prayer below.

Prayer point: O lord God Almighty, Forgive me all my sins. I accept you as my personal Lord and savior. Thank you for your mercy that endures forever over me. Thank you for being good to me

MINISTER: SAMUEL OGUTA