July 31
Our Father in heaven we beseech thee this hour to come and dwell amidst us and make us worthy to behold your presence this day as we reverence your Holy Name today in your Holy temple and May your glory cover us this day as in the day of the old. Amen!
We will be considering the prayer of “Thanksgiving” today, it is indeed a blessing to us as a ministry that the month is ending today which is also our day of prayer, so we will be thanking God for His wonders in our lives in the past months and also usher in the new month. Are you still there with me? We ought to be more thankful for what we get from God. Perhaps some of you mothers have a child in your family who is constantly complaining—never thankful. You know that there is not much pleasure in doing anything for a child like that. If you meet with a beggar who is always grumbling, and never seems to be thankful for what you give, you very soon shut the door in his face altogether.
Ingratitude is about the hardest thing we have to meet with so we must come before our God with thanks in our heart; we give it from the deep of our heart- Praise God. That leads to a deep communion with our Father through Jesus our Saviour and this fellowship enables us to partake in all He has for us as His children. Come along with me to discover more:
“I in them.” John 17:23
If such be the union which subsists between our souls and the person of our Lord, how deep and broad is the channel of our communion! This is no narrow pipe through which a thread-like stream may wind its way, it is a channel of amazing depth and breadth, along whose glorious length a ponderous volume of living water may roll its floods. Behold He hath set before us an open door, let us not be slow to enter.
This city of communion hath many pearly gates, every several gate is of one pearl, and each gate is thrown open to the uttermost that we may enter, assured of welcome. If there were but one small loophole through which to talk with Jesus, it would be a high privilege to thrust a word of fellowship through the narrow door; how much we are blessed in having so large an entrance! Had the Lord Jesus been far away from us, with many a stormy sea between, we should have longed to send a messenger to Him to carry Him our loves, and bring us tidings from His Father’s house; but see His kindness, He has built His house next door to ours, nay, more, He takes lodging with us, and tabernacles in poor humble hearts, that so He may have perpetual intercourse with us.
O how foolish must we be, if we do not live in habitual communion with Him. When the road is long, and dangerous, and difficult, we need not wonder that friends seldom meet each other, but when they live together, shall Jonathan forget his David? A wife may when her husband is upon a journey, abide many days without holding converse with him, but she could never endure to be separated from him if she knew him to be in one of the chambers of her own house. Why, believer, dost not thou sit at His banquet of wine?
Seek thy Lord, for He is near; embrace Him, for He is thy Brother. Hold Him fast, for He is thine Husband; and press Him to thine heart, for He is of thine own flesh.
Giving thanks with a grateful heart as employed us by God is a great virtue. A grateful heart, God does not resist; will you decide today to be full of thanks. Recently the Lord laid in my heart another dimension to view “thanksgiving” “we go before God with “a tank” and in offering it unto Him we come back with the “tank full” does it make any sense to you? That is you come before God with an “empty tank” which He in turn “fills” to overflowing for you, so you are the one that is bless of the Lord no matter what you think you are offering (in your offering envelope) to God.
The bible recorded that the measure you give same will be giving back unto you but now “full” good measure, pressing down, shaking together, running over will be giving back to you (Lk 6:38). Do you understand it now? Let’s further discover why you and I should always give “Thanks” and how our Father receives “praise and thanksgiving” from us:
“And these are the singers … they were employed in that work day and night.” 1Chronicles 9:33
Well was it so ordered in the temple that the sacred chant never ceased: for evermore did the singers praise the Lord, whose mercy endureth for ever. As mercy did not cease to rule either by day or by night, so neither did music hush its holy ministry. My heart, there is a lesson sweetly taught to thee in the ceaseless song of Zion’s temple, thou too art a constant debtor, and see thou to it that thy gratitude, like charity, never faileth.
God’s praise is constant in heaven, which is to be thy final dwelling-place, learn thou to practice the eternal hallelujah. Around the earth as the sun scatters his light, his beams awaken grateful believers to tune their morning hymn, so that by the priesthood of the saints perpetual praise is kept up at all hours, they swathe our globe in a mantle of thanksgiving, and girdle it with a golden belt of song.
The Lord always deserves to be praised for what He is in Himself, for His works of creation and providence, for His goodness towards His creatures, and especially for the transcendent act of redemption, and all the marvellous blessing flowing therefrom. It is always beneficial to praise the Lord; it cheers the day and brightens the night; it lightens toil and softens sorrow; and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare.
Have we not something to sing about at this moment? Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past deliverances, or our future hopes? Earth yields her summer fruits: the hay is housed, the golden grain invites the sickle, and the sun tarrying long to shine upon a fruitful earth, shortens the interval of shade that we may lengthen the hours of devout worship. By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness.
As we round off the month today, may we be thankful unto God for thus far he had lead us and usher in the new month with a grateful heart and the Lord will bless you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu
