Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Orange Moon Wednesday, November 24, 2021 "A Gratitude More Glorious"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

   


"A Gratitude More Glorious"  

    The New Testament depicts the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to His Father in nine passages, beginning with Matthew 11:25:

   "At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

    Our Savior was the most thankful human being who ever lived.  He confessed complete dependence on the Father - "I live by the Father" - and complete provision by the Father - All things are delivered unto Me by My Father" (John 6:57; Luke 10:22).  Thus, the nine offerings of thanksgiving recorded doubtless serve as a mere glimmer of the glory that daily shone as the Son bowed heart and head to give thanks to His Father.   

   How wonderful it would have been to have witnessed the Lord Jesus pray, especially prayers of gratitude.  No such window of the past exists.  Wondrously, however, we may peer through an open and perhaps unexpected portal of the present to behold the Son offering gratitude to the Father.

    "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

    Greek scholars do not know the exact meaning of the term, "Abba."  They do know, however, it denotes a personal expression of devotion from one heart to another.  Such loving communication surely involves thanksgiving.   Thus, a grateful Lord Jesus dwells in believers by His Spirit.  Every sincere offering of thanks to our Heavenly Father ascends to the throne of God not only as the expression of our hearts, but as united with the very heart of our Savior.  Born again believers do not exist as merely ourselves, but as living spiritual temples inhabited, illuminated, inspired, and infused by the very life of Christ Himself.  "Christ liveth in me" exulted Paul (Galatians 2:20).  We must rejoice with our brother in this light of  "Christ in you, them hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).  Moreover, we marvel at the thought of a united gratitude - our Savior's and our own - that blesses the heart of our Father when we look toward Heaven with humble and sincere thanksgiving.  "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).

   This makes thanksgiving much more than we may realize.  We must  be supernaturally empowered if we are to give thanks genuinely, sincerely, effectually, and in a manner that blesses our Father's heart even as it illuminates our own.  The Spirit of Christ provides such grace.  "We live through Him" declared the Apostle John (I John 4:9).  This certainly includes our offerings of thanksgiving to God that soar to Him from our hearts, as borne on the wings of our Savior (I John 4:9).  The next prayer of thanks we express to God the Father will be graced by God the Son, as led and enabled by God the Holy Spirit.   Yes, thanksgiving involves a gratitude more glorious than time and eternity will ever fully tell…

"By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name." 
(Hebrews 13:15)

Weekly Memory Verse
   The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
(Galatians 3:24)





























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