Attitude of Gratitude

God answers prayer. It is a simple direct statement, yet sometimes in the excitement having had divine aid we forget to thank him.  I just did, until the great relief of the changed situation passed and it occurred to me I had just gotten an answer to my plea and was already skipping down the road before I was pulled up short realizing I had failed to thank him and praise him for helping me. It makes me wonder how often I do that. Not good.

Maybe it’s due to some of my prayers being long distance ones. Prayers for things I have yet to receive answers to. Prayers for the salvation of loved ones. Prayers about future outcomes. Prayers about our nation and believers around the globe. Those are prayers that take time and are left hanging in spiritual limbo. Prayers I have no way of knowing what the answers will look like.  Yet, I should tell myself that answers will assuredly come. There is no reason why I should not praise him for the answers not yet revealed.

During the time God came down to take on flesh as the Son, Jesus ministry was punctuated by acts of miraculous healings. Those actions were met with praise and wonder. Yet there was one time when those healed ran down the road forgetting the One who had answered their pleas. Ten lepers cried out for Jesus to heal them and when he did so they immediately ran off newly freed from being outcasts now being restored and acceptable to the community. Only one turned back to thank him for the miracle. Jesus asked what happened to the other nine not really expecting an answer. It was a rhetorical question, but one intended to teach the onlookers. Gratitude should never forgotten and praise should be rightly rendered to the Lord.

My prayer was simple yet desperate and the answer was quickly granted. I should have thought to immediately stop, turn back, fall to my knees and express my thankfulness.  But like the nine other lepers I ran off forgetting the One who bailed me out. I did so as an afterthought. I am ashamed that I wasn’t just as quick with my praise as God was with my answer. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see what had just transpired and pricked my conscience. I am left with the sin I confessed to in the first paragraph. I think I am not the only one who has done this. Our lives should be one of continual praise for the recognition that none of us have anything but God’s grace to have the forgiveness of all our sin.

I plan to live as though my next breath can only be taken by the great mercy of God. In humility and with gratitude we should live our lives letting our thoughts, actions and words offer continual praise for God’s answers and blessings. He is worthy to be worshipped and glorified for our God is an awesome God.

Let the Good Times Roll!

Today Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection. Jesus is no longer in the tomb! Death could not hold him in its bitter grasp. The rejected Messiah is robed in glory and lives. He has the name above all names and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord of all. And all those who place their faith in his atoning sacrifice will be resurrected, too. We will no longer be clothed in the body of shame. The promises made by God will come to pass and all the machinations of the evil one cannot prevent it. It’s been sealed by the broken body and shed blood of our Redeemer who lives and reigns for eternity.

I have been locked in a fierce battle for my mind for a long time. The end of which is still unknown. But today is a day of unrelenting joy and peace. The burdens I bear and the weight of my sin have been lifted from my weak shoulders and borne away by my blessed Savior. It is a day of celebration and we can party hardy! No holds barred. The Lord delights in our unabashed expressions of praise. David danced before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought to the tabernacle. His wife despised him for it, but God was enjoying every minute of it. Shouldn’t we?

There are holy days in which we take on somber countenances and rightly so. Our God is awesome God and we do well to bow down in his presence. The Creator of all seen and unseen, the vast universe that seems endless and the myriads of angels who do his bidding on earth and in heavenly realms. And yet the Omnipotent One stooped down to fashion us by hand from the dust of the earth he created and breathed the breath of life into us. He made us in his image and blessed us. Then he rested from his creative works saying it was all good.

Never once has God been surprised by our actions and words. He foresaw our fall from perfection into a sinful existence. His glory in us sullied. And yet, there remains in each human a divinely ordained hunger to be more than we are. In the heart of all who live is an urge to worship something. The need is overpowering and humans have sought to fulfill it with anything but the One who placed it within the heart and mind. Driven by carnal instincts men and women have turned to a vast array of false gods and our fallen natures have deceived us into believing the next great thing will take away the emptiness we long to fill. But our desires are never sated.

Enter the promise God first made to Adam and Eve, that a sacrifice greater than the blood of animals would be provided to pay the ransom for us from the demand of justice that required the shedding of blood and death. The Law was given to reveal our hopeless condition. No one, not even one is righteous before God. All are subject to sin and death. We deceive ourselves if we deny the truth that the wages of sin are death and try as we might to pay our way into heaven it’s not good enough to see the face of a holy God.

The good news is God made a way to redeem our fallen race and the broken body and shed blood of an unblemished sacrificial Lamb paid the penalty once and for all time. The redemption of the created ones was declared finished from the cross and the promise of the ages was fulfilled by the resurrection we celebrate today. The path to the presence of the Almighty One is made possible through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So let’s party!

It is a Good Day

It’s an ordinary sort of day. I have been running errands and grabbing breakfast at our favorite greasy spoon. I woke up late and had to drag myself out of bed as it was chilly and rainy and staying curled up under my blankets was quite cozy. I decided it would not be a pajama day as tempting as it was and got out of bed and got ready for the day.

I didn’t take the time to think about the significance of the day, at least not until now. It is Good Friday and Christians throughout the world celebrate this holiest day in the Christian calendar. I don’t have to recount the story as every believer knows it by heart. But still it is right to pause and meditate on the significance of the day.

The road Jesus walked on the way to Calvary was both glorious and labor intensive as he spent the last three years of his life trekking roads throughout the holy lands. He was worshipped and adored for the miracles he wrought. His teaching amazed all who came to listen as scripture says he preached with an authority unlike the scribes in the synagogues. With a word he could heal the blind and the lame. He was able to raise the dead and yet take time to bless little children. He could thunder at willful and flagrant cheapening of the temple in Jerusalem and speak gently about the love and endless mercy of God. And when confronted by the self-righteous Pharisees he confounded them by wisdom that left them speechless.

His wanderings took him to hills and lakes where crowds of people sought him to listen to him preach and they would speak among themselves that he must have been John the Baptist come back to life. It was all set straight when he dared to declare himself as equal to the Father. The crowds thought him the long awaited Messiah who would deliver Israel from the Romans not understanding that he came to deliver them from a different bondage, sin’s seemingly unbreakable grasp. The Pharisees thought him a false prophet who was leading the people astray and hated him for turning people from their allegiance to them.  When Jesus claimed he was deity it was the last straw. What happened next is the story of the greatest gift God would bestow on humanity. His fate was sealed and he set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem.

Believers from the days of Jesus have made attempts to make the sufferings of Jesus as realistic as possible. I have seen displays and heard ministers describe in full detail how the Pharisees and Romans treated our Lord, as they subjected him to unbelievable torture, degradation and humiliation. It was the last step toward the final act of the most profound love that has ever been bestowed on humanity.

We call this day Good Friday because we have the benefit of hindsight. The disciples and Mary did not have the clarity we do. It was not a good day in their limited understanding. It was a brutal end to what was seemingly a journey to a new order on earth. Though Jesus prophesized his end, they did not understand and in that terrible death of their leader they hid as wanted men do.  

This is Good Friday and as we remember the sacrificial death of Jesus, we are given the gift of greater faith in the amazing love and mercy of our Father and our Redeemer King. So while you go about your day, take a moment to reflect on the cross and say once again it is good.