Orange Moon Cafe "Thanksgiving, His Pleasure"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Thanksgiving, His Pleasure"

     

        Through the years of these messages, we have often returned to gratitude as a frequently recurring theme regarding our response to the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Scripture.

      "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18).

      The Apostle Paul beckons us to an ongoing expression of thanksgiving, calling born again believers to maintain an atmosphere of gratitude in our hearts, and frequent expression with our words.  Countless reasons exist for this privileged responsibility in our walk with the Lord.  For the present consideration, let us ponder the truth that we please His heart when we thank Him.  This is not because God selfishly desires our gratitude, but rather because being genuinely thankful involves the personal fellowship of love revealed, love received, and love realized.  Our Heavenly Father is the most generous of beings.  Indeed, He is the essence of both the disposition to give and its practice.  Thus, when we realize and acknowledge the Divine source of "every good gift and every perfect gift," we walk in the light of reality and in the loving response that so pleases our Father (James 1:17).  "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).  God loves the fellowship of human hearts inhabited by His Son.  Nothing more constitutes being personal with God than the sincere offering of thanksgiving for gifts given and gifts received.

   This is especially true because our Father gives as a matter of grace.  "Freely ye have received" declared the Lord Jesus to His disciples (Matthew 10:8).  This truth involves everything we will ever receive from God, including the next breath.  We earn nothing in our reception of His gifts because no price we could remit would ever be enough to purchase even the smallest expression of His generosity.  More importantly, the Lord Jesus purchased all for us by His suffering, forsakenness, and death on the cross of Calvary.  His blood imprints "Paid In Full" on everything God will ever provide or perform for us.  Everything.  Our response of thanksgiving reveals we understand this marvel of mercy.  Moreover, in every Christ-filled heart, gratitude leads us to look into the face of our Father with wonder, affection, and the devotion of awed and appreciative love.  This pleases Him beyond any measure we can imagine because He so loves being personal with us, and because nothing transcends thanksgiving as our opportunity for being personal with Him.  The Psalmist confirms such blessed truth, and we close with his affirmation of thanksgiving and its grace of living near to the heart of God…

"Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name: the upright shall dwell in Thy presence."

(Psalm 140:13)

Weekly Memory Verse    

    "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

 (Ephesians 6:10)

  

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