Forget not all His benefits!

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
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

Similar Posts

  • What is compassion?

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    We must understand that Jesus’ disciples were not perfect; quite the opposite, they are ordinary people with „character issues”. Jesus did not wait until they become perfect, but sent them out to serve people. He did not have anybody else to send; so He worked with what He had. And He is calling us to do the same today; it applies to every one who considers himself to be His disciple. Jesus desires for God’s children to be filled with compassion and to help people allowing God to touch all the people around them with His love.If we see someone perishing physically because of some illness, we do everything to save him. We often do not realize that unsaved people are spiritually ill, that they are perishing and need salvation. We must do everything in our power to save them. So our hearts need to go out to them with love and compassion.

  • Plan, plant, pray, but also act!

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    I want to begin this word with a story: A man had a wonderful garden that brought him a rich, abundant harvest. When his neighbor saw that, he decided that the next spring he would make a garden for himself too. But after the neighbor had sawn seeds in his garden, he did not do anything there afterward. He did not water his garden, did not cultivate, neither loosened the soil. When the autumn came, his garden was neglected and full with weeds. And, of course, it did not bring forth any fruit.

  • The hope of salvation is the most real protection in the last days

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    Describing the difficulties of the last days, Jesus said that there would be serious shakings and even the powers of heaven would be shaken. He said that there would be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; He predicted fear and perplexity among men, and roaring and storms in the sea. At that time some people will be extremely fearful; there will be fear of calamities, lots of depression; but others will raise their heads, praise God and joyfully expect their redemption, because they will have the hope of salvation.

  • Changes through Ministry II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    « He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love ». (1st John 4:8).If God is love it’s vitally important to know and understand how Love behaves.« For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life ». (John 3:16).

  • We are the new creation in Christ Jesus, made for good deeds the Lord has determined for us II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    «For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.»(Ephesians 2:8-10).Here we can see that person is not made righteous by his deeds. God never declares somebody righteous by his many good works. Vice verse, God makes righteous those who accept His gift by faith, namely Christ Jesus. A person becomes good in God´s eyes by faith when he believes in good works God has done in Christ.

  • I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me!

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    According to the word of God we are already granted everything we need in order to succeed in this life. God has already given us all that we need to have life abundantly. There is no such need in our life God has not taken care for yet. We only have to get to know God and His precious promises, so that we can prevail the lust of this world and fulfil our call from God.«Seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue; by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.». (2 Peter 1:3-4).