Grateful people – they are people able for self-sacrifice!
I greet every reader on this wonderful day that was created by God!
May God give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation about His Word which is alive and working.
God is love, and because He loves, He sacrifices. All the persons in the Bible that were called the friends of God were capable of self-sacrifice.
Today, let us look at the life of Abraham.
It is written in the Bible that when God’s angels came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, God said, „Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17) In the Russian translation of the Bible the second part of the verse goes like this, „He is my friend, and he must know this.”
How did Abraham draw God’s attention to himself? He loved God not only in words, but also in works. During his life, Abraham built many altars for God and offered many sacrifices to Him.
This is a description of one of these altars:
“The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 12:7-8).
Again, we see that God is the initiator of everything. If we think about God, if we are attentive towards His works, it will not be hard for us to offer sacrifice for Him. Why did Abraham build an altar for God? God appeared before Abraham and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”Abraham built an altar as a sign of his gratefulness to God.
Grateful people – they are people capable of self-sacrifice!
What is our response like today? How do we express our gratitude to God for the fact that we live, that He protects us, that He has saved us, that we breathe and walk, and that we have families and children? What God is doing for us today – does it help us be more open, sacrifice more, and become better worshippers?
People of God’s Kingdom – they are people who are grateful to God. Develop gratefulness in yourself! Gratitude helps us walk in humbleness before God and turn to Him at all times. David clearly knew that if God was not with him, he would not be among the living.
“If the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. … Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalms 124:2-5,8).
May you be known as a grateful person capable of self-sacrifice, and God will definitely bless you.
May God bless you abundantly!
Until tomorrow!
Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
