L.Y.F.E. is………
Blessings and greetings L.Y.F.E. family!
Welcome to another edition of “L.Y.F.E. is…”!
We hope and pray that your hearts are encouraged and that you are blessed by this devotional!
Title: There’s Always Something To Be Grateful For!
Scripture: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 118:1 (KJV)
No matter how bad things get in life; there’s always something to be grateful for!
Giving thanks should be an everyday thing, but every once and while there are times when we reach places in life where we really don’t feel like giving thanks. It’s not that you don’t believe in God. It’s not that you don’t have faith. It’s not even that you don’t believe God deserves the glory. Let’s keep it real! Everybody reaches a place where it’s hard to say “Thank You Jesus!”(Including myself) Giving thanks unto God is not easy from the hard places!
The last 20 months has certainly been a hard place for some of us. This has been a time of pandemics (global health pandemic, economic pandemic, environmental pandemic, social injustice pandemic, heightened racial tension pandemic, etc.) Some of us may be facing unexpected health challenges while others are at a loss of a family member, dear friend or loved one. These are bittersweet days for some us. But we can still be thankful to God even in our loss. We can be thankful for our loved one’s lives; their legacies; the time we spend with them; even their contributions and influence in our lives. There’s always something to be grateful for!
The problem is that we condition our thanks and praise to God based on our places in life! It’s easy to give thanks and bless God when our bills are paid; when we’re in good health and strength; when there’s money in the bank; and when life seems to be going our way. Our thanks unto the LORD should not be predicated on our happenstance or situation. We owe praise and thanks to the LORD because Emmanuel (God with us) is ever so present and has the power to bring us through no matter what life harsh reality is.
The psalmist in our text tells us to “O give thanks unto the LORD” for two reasons: 1).because God is good; and 2).because His mercy endureth forever. God’s goodness is in God’s nature and essence. God’s goodness is not what God does but it’s who God is. It’s a never changing, everlasting, infallible, unaltered characteristic of our God. So God is good not because God makes things feel or even seem good when they happen in our lives but because God is ever so present in those “not so good situations” and works them out for our good. We thank God for being good to us.
Next, the psalmist tells us to “O give thanks unto the LORD” because His mercy endureth forever. God’s mercy is part of God’s goodness. The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yet God extends to us God’s mercy and spares us from the punishment we really deserve. Even when justice demands it. God forgives us of our sins and gives us a second chance at getting it right with God. The Bible teaches us that God’s tender mercies are new everyday. We thank God for His mercy endureth forever!
Our scripture text instructs us to thank God because God is good and because His mercy endureth forever. We don’t need a particular place or a special occasion to thank God. We can thank and praise God every day, any time of the day, throughout the day. Simply because God is good and He’s good all the time.
Memory verse: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
