Grateful Heart

Have you ever felt gratitude well up in your heart? Have you in the course of a seemingly ordinary day felt your heart strings pull with inexplicable gratitude to the living God? I had this experience this morning as I gathered with my family in worship to the Lord. I looked around my sitting room and saw nearly every member of my household in the early hours of the morning worshiping and praising the Lord and I was just so grateful to God.

Some of us take going to church for granted, but there are many locations in the world that this is no longer possible. Even in some regions in our country, Nigeria, Christians can no longer hold formal Church services. These locations are fear ridden because of the oppression and bias against Christians. But we can. Any day of the week, we can worship God, formally and informally. This for me is a reason to be grateful to God.

Our children are in private schools where they lift their hands and bless the Lord at their assembly times. Our toddlers come home from school humming songs of praise and worship to the Lord. Songs they learnt at their schools! This for me is true blessing. Too often we take for granted the very important issues of life and get depressed about minor matters. That we know the Lord is a priceless gift to be grateful for.

Have you seen a spiritually lost man lately? Have you noticed how oblivious and dead they are to the things of God? Have you noticed the fact that they have no conscience in the way they treat other people? Have you noticed how unscrupulous some business men are? That they can do just about anything for money? But you are not like that. Do you know that the fact that you have a working and vibrant conscience means that you will not miss God’s ways and His instructions? You, as a believer do not have a reprobate mind, but the mind of Christ. Is this not worthy of praise and worship? When you catch the revelation of what I am talking about you would bow your heart and knees in worship right where you are!

Anyone can buy a car and build a house. You do not need to be a born again Christian to do that. Look around the world, millionaires are one a dozen! Anyone can be a millionaire. But to be saved and heaven bound, to be a co-heir with Jesus Christ, to have a recreated spirit and be in union with God, this my dear friend, is true blessing and true riches. When you have the mind of Christ there is nothing that you cannot create or have in this world, if that is your desire. But those who truly have this blessing at the end of the day do not really want to inherit the earth for their pleasure alone but for the good of mankind. A great man of God once proclaimed, “I have vowed to be a blessing to mankind till I die” This is coming from one of the richest and leading servants of God in our generation. Some of the greatest faith feats in Africa today were done through him, yet his desire is to continue to be a blessing to mankind! The higher we climb in God, the less important material and financial blessings become because at that height we get to see what is truly important in life and to God. May we get there in Jesus name!

So, to see my family gathered together in worship each morning is a reason for me to be grateful to God. You know why, once upon a time we could not do so. It was a major struggle. We had just too many activities and it was not just practicable much as we desired to, but today God has supplied grace and all those so called activities have taken the back burner and we are able to gather daily to worship the only true God who has given us life and gathered us together as a family. It is a dream come true and an answer to prayers. And so joy and gratitude wells in my heart for this living God who reigns forever more! To some this may be trivial, but to me it is a big deal. As a matter of fact it is the deal of all deals!

To teach and establish my children in the fear of God cannot be compared with any car or house that I may acquire now or in the future. Dear friends, let us track our priorities and when we do we would realize that God has been faithful to us. Be grateful! Peace.

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