All children of God must stir up the attitude of appreciation to the Lord. If good things happen to us and we are glad, let us go ahead and thank the Lord who has made us glad. Let us dramatize our appreciation. Let us make a big deal of the fact that we are grateful. An adage says ‘if a child shows appreciation for yesterday’s benefaction, he has positioned himself to receive another one today.’ Let us thank God copiously and dramatically for what He did yesterday,and He shall do more for us today and forever.
When God showed His mercy to Solomon, and led him to a landmark achievement, Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings to the Lord.
2 Chronicles 1:6-7And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it. On that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, ‘Ask! What shall I give you?’
To show that he appreciated God, Solomon offered to God a new kind of offering. He looked around him, thought hard and long, and did something that no one had ever done to show appreciation to God. What is that thing that represents your own ‘one thousand burnt offerings’? What is that special, unprecedented gesture of appreciation that you shall offer to the Lord to express your appreciation for what He has done for you? What is that thing that no one has ever done that you can do to show God that you appreciate Him for the great things that He has done for you? The Psalmist says, Psalms 50:14 Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.
When we show to the Lordthat we appreciate what He has done, we offer Him encouragement to do more in our lives. We show that God has not ‘labored’ in vain over our lives. So we must make deliberate effort, and elaborate arrangements, to show appreciation to God. The Psalmist says, Psalms 147:1-2 Praise the Lord!For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.The Lord builds up Jerusalem;He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
To say it in another way, how we can show the Lord that we appreciate what He has done for us is by doing for Him too those things make Him happy – those things that make God happy.
Apart from thanksgiving which we have mentioned, another thing that surely makes the Lord happy is soul-winning. All who are grateful to God must re-embrace the task of soul-winning.Our Lord said to His followers at a point, Luke 15:7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Shall we multiply that joy in heaven by cooperating with God to bring more sinners to repentance?