Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ! Welcome to „Daily Word for Spiritual Edification”! We have been discussing how being ungrateful contains destructive power that turns blessings into curses. God is not interested in cursing your blessings, so He shows you the way of advancement where you should go. Being grateful is one of the secrets how we can maintain God’s blessings and multiply them. Many of us are not good at being grateful and do not keep in remembrance the things God has done in our lives. Forgetting the good things God has done for him, a person does not find any reason to be grateful especially in some pressing circumstances. King David said: «Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!», because he understood that people have short memory.
«Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits» (Psalm, 103:1-2).
God repeatedly called His nation not to forget His goodness and kindness towards them. God even gave them a commandment to remember His miracles through different feasts and symbols. Until now Jews celebrate numerous feasts that tell of God’s wonderful and miraculous deeds done very long time ago. Here are some examples of these feasts: «So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations» (Exodus, 12:14).
«…and Joshua said to them: „Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever” (Joshua, 4:5-7).
These two passages of the Bible tell us of God’s commandments that He gave to the Jews. The purpose of these commandments was to help Israel keep in memory and pass to all of the future generations what God had done for them. That was the proper way to praise God and stay thankful. Through it God wanted to help them not just get established in their blessings, but also have access to new blessing that God had prepared for the people with grateful hearts. In the New Testament Jesus commanded the Church to have communion in remembrance of Him. Communion is when we celebrate and thank Jesus for His sacrifice: «For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, „Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, „This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians, 11:23-25).
Many of us do not thank God as we ought to, because we do not purposely keep in mind what God has done or is doing for us. We forget because we do not write it down. When I was a teenager, we often sang a song that said: «Count your blessings! Name every one of them, one after another, and you will be amazed at what the Lord has done!» I advise every one of you to record every miracle and every blessing that God does in our lives. You can use different methods: either modern technologies or simple writing. «Forget not all His benefits!» You must not forget God’s miracles; you must be grateful for them. If you will start recording God’s blessings, then when you read them or just recall them in your memory, your faith will rise in your heart and you will experience renewed assurance in the faithfulness, goodness and kindness of your Heavenly Father. We will continue tomorrow! I wish you God’s abundant blessings! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
