God lives and works today.
Have we ever thanked him for this, from
the bottom of our hearts?
Someone once said, the way to receive is
to give thanks.
And these words are especially true when it
comes to experiencing the reality of God.
Today's meditation by Vesalia Schlenk can help our
hearts to become thankful again, and thankful people
are happy and rich.
When our hearts are full of gratitude towards
a person who has done much good to
us, we feel impelled to give him something
in return.
We want to give him a precious gift,
one that will cost us something.
A couple of words of thanks are too
little.
Our thankful heart longs to be able to
do more.
We want to show our love by making
a sacrifice, and so a sacrifice belongs to
true gratitude.
If this principle applies to human relationships, how
much more should it apply to our relationship
with God?
For no one has ever done so much
good to us as he has, and no
one has ever had less reason to be
kind to our sinners.
When God nevertheless showers us with undeserved goodness,
surely we must respond with an appropriate expression
of our gratitude.
And this thank you can't be cheap.
It has to cost us something.
When we give thanks to God, we give
thanks to God.
When we give thanks to God, we give
thanks to God.
When the river streams your goodness, overwhelming us
with kindness, we taste paradise on earth.
In Luke chapter 17 we read about how
Jesus healed the ten lepers.
Verses 15 and 16 tell us, Then one
of them, when he saw that he was
healed, turned back, praising God with a loud
voice, and he fell on his face at
Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.
When the leper turned back to thank Jesus,
it cost him something.
Surely his natural inclination must have been to
hurry off to his family and loved ones.
Neither would it have been easy for him
to proclaim in front of all the Pharisees
that he belonged to Jesus.
But he brought this sacrifice out of gratitude
to Jesus.
The Lord is also waiting for our sacrifices
of thanksgiving.
He's waiting for us to take the next
step, to turn away from sinful paths, or
to bring him a certain sacrifice of money,
gifts, people, or things.
Whatever we might want to hold on to,
let's bring it to Jesus now as a
sign of our true gratitude.
My soul I hold dear, My whole life
to Jesus belonging, My heart seeks my Lord
to reveal.
I follow not close in his footsteps The
path that he taught here below, I only
desire what he gives me, And only his
way I will go.
You have been listening to a program written
by Basile Schlenk of the Little Land of
Canaan.
To learn more about how God lives and
works today, visit us at our website www
.canaan.org That's K-A-N-A-A
-N dot org.
If you contact us, we would be happy
to send you a free inspirational booklet.
If you do not have access to the
web, please contact this radio station for our
postal address.
God bless you.