Friday 12 February 2016

More Reasons To Show Gratitude To God



Genesis 8:18-22
So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after the other.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Genesis 9:1-3
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beast of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Genesis 19:16-22
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”

Genesis 19:30-32
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let us get our father to drink with wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father. 

I bless God again and again for another opportunity to share His word with His special people and I pray that His word will make a great impact in our lives and homes in Jesus Name.
I want us to take a second look at the issue of showing gratitude to God as a secret to receiving divine increase from Him for our lives such that in the midst of lack we the children of God will enjoy divine abundance. So we will consider the after effect of a life that has expressed gratitude to God and compare with a life that has not.
In Genesis 8:18-22, we read that after Noah came out of the ark, he selected some clean animals and birds and sacrificed an offering to the Lord on the altar he had built. The Bible then went further to tell us that God smelt the pleasing aroma of Noah’s sacrifice and said in His heart that never again will He curse the ground because of man despite the evil in the heart of man. He went on to declare that as long as the earth endures everything He has created will follow it’s due course as it should be.
But the beauty of it all is that God didn’t stop at making up His mind on certain issues in the life of man, He went further to bless Noah and his sons. He made a covenant of increase with Noah and his sons and every man on earth, and that covenant was a covenant of blessing. It was a covenant of increase and a covenant of divine provision of all that man would need. It was a covenant of protection as the Lord declared that He will cause the fear and dread of Noah and man in general to fall upon every beast that moves on the ground and on every bird that flies in the sky. Then the Lord said that all that moves and lives has been given to man as food. God held back nothing from man as He declared that He has given man everything.
Now this covenant came into existence because of Noah’s sacrifice. Noah was not asked to sacrifice as that was not included in the instruction God gave him when He told him to build an ark. But Noah sacrificed to God to show appreciation and as a form of gratitude to God for sparing his life and that of his household from the destruction that swept the earth and the benefit of that sacrifice is still being enjoyed till this generation. Yes, we still see the rainbow up in the sky in this generation as a reminder to God of the covenant He made with Noah and all man. God has not changed His mind nor has He gone back on the words He spoke to Noah in Genesis 9:1-3, neither has He destroyed the earth as He did in the times and days of Noah even though greater evil than then is seen in the world today.
The second scripture speaks of the man called Lot, whom the Lord showed mercy to and spared from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot just like Noah was delivered from a great destruction, but unlike Noah, Lot totally forgot to show gratitude to God. And there ended the mention of the name of Lot in the Bible. Rather than for Lot to appreciate God for showing him mercy, Lot ran to the cave and lived there in fear. He so lived in fear and became old and all that was said of Lot was that he fathered the children of his daughters in the course of getting drunk with wine. Yet Lot like Noah found favour with God and was spared.
So we see the difference between a life of gratitude and a life that forgot to show gratitude to God. As we truly desire an increase from God in our financial life and in fact in all areas of our lives, it is very important that we cultivate an attitude of gratitude. We need to imbibe a lifestyle of appreciating God for His gifts in our lives, both the little gifts and the big ones. Then we will flourish like the tree planted by the streams of waters bringing forth our fruits in season and in all that we do, we will prosper.
As we begin to crave for the abundance of God in our homes, it is time to start to building altars to the Lord and start to offer sacrifices on our altars that will be a pleasing aroma for Him to smell. When we do that He will pour out blessings on us that we do not have room enough to contain. Proverbs 3:9 says, "Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." 



Books written by me are now available for sale at createspace.com. They are listed on the blog page and you can know more about the books and get a copy by clicking on the book of your choice. May you be so blessed and enriched and you get a copy and tell a friend about it. These are life changing materials that will make big impact in your life to the glory of God.  


No comments:

Post a Comment

Why Do We Worship God

Many people feel like they should only praise God when they have received a blessing from God. Honestly, I was in that category too, so I am...