Gratitude is not Silent

“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.” (Ps 69:30 AV)

As I read this morning, the LORD was preparing me for a specific thought.  This didn’t come in my reading as I had thought, so the LORD led me to look up a particular word.  That word is ‘thank’.  I looked up that word, and every other deviation of it.  The reason the Spirit led me in such a manner is that recently, we have experienced answered prayer.  Not simple or minor answered prayer.  Which is, in and of itself, miraculous.  Rather, we received fantastic news.  Together with a blessing given by the LORD of a private nature, I felt very grateful.  This blessing from God made me a bit humbler than I was prior to His grace.  That is how it is supposed to work.  So, this poor sinner expected to meditate on how merciful and kind God is with the idea that God’s goodness humbles the contrite ones.  Rather, the Spirit had a different truth waiting for me.  As I looked up this word, and other derivatives of it, there was a pattern that emerged.  The emotion of gratitude was not one that remained silent.  Almost a universal principle, if the writer felt grateful for whatever it was that God did, he could not remain silent.  I was left with the impression that to the degree we share the news of God’s blessing or nature is the degree that measures how grateful we are.  If we are silent, then we are not truly grateful.

Recently, while soul-winning, I spoke to a woman who had no interest in what the Bible had to say regarding Jesus Christ and her need for salvation.  She was thrilled that her denomination had elected a new leader.  She was bounding with joy and gratitude with something that is contrary to the word of God and harmful to her eternal life.  A month doesn’t go by wherein we see a crowd go nuts after their team wins a championship.  A new baby comes into the world and we cannot stop talking about him or her.  Just the other day, my father-in-law and I were talking.  He mentioned something he did that brought him enjoyment, and I countered with a similar recollection that seemed to one-up his.  We have a good report from the doctor, a good deal on groceries or a purchase, or learn something new while watching a video and the world knows all about it.  It is in our nature to share good fortune.  We what to share the emotion of the moment.

When it comes to God’s goodness, we are all of a sudden, silent.  All the blessings we receive are from the LORD.  Almost all of those things mentioned above are directly from the hand of God.  If so, He should get the glory.  Because of what the LORD did for us the past 48 hours, the Spirit has changed my prayer life.  We were about as low as we could get.  Being a caregiver for a sick spouse is not for the faint of heart.  It changes things.  It changes the very dynamic of your relationship.  It is what you signed up for at the altar many years ago.  It is the ministry that lasts a lifetime.  It doesn’t get any easier.  But the LORD knows how to ease the burden.  What is required may not change.  But the ability to perform that which is cast upon us is significantly lighter when the LORD is there.  As I stated before, God is good and all the time.  But He was particularly good the last few days.  The burden of which we were under has been lifted in several ways.  So, I hope you don’t mind the last few paragraphs as my way of praising God for His wonderful grace toward the least of all His saints!