Over the last few weeks, we have talked about thanking God for what he does and praising God for who he is, but we have only really talked about using our words to thank God. We can also give thanks by doing stuff. In fact, we do not want to be all talk, do we? We want our actions to correspond with our words, so then what do you think is the first and most important thing that we can do, to show our gratitude to God?
Let me tell you a story: There once was a boy who wanted to thank his mom because Mother’s Day was coming soon. He wanted to do something special, so the boy thought long and hard about what made him happy. He loved snakes and so he decided that he would go into the woods in their backyard and see if he could find a nice wiggly snake to give to his mother.
What do you think happened the next morning when the boy’s mom woke up to breakfast in bed and opened up the present from her son?
The moral of the story is this: If we are going to do something to show our gratitude then our first action must be to listen to the one that we are trying to thank. What will that person appreciate? The boy in the story genuinely wanted to show gratitude, but he did not stop to think about what his mother might want. Giving thanks by doing something should always begin by listening to the person we are trying to thank.
In the same way, the first and best thing that we can do to show our thanks to God for his great love and mercy is to listen to him. Open up the Bible! Listen! Not sure where to begin? Join a group of us at 9am as we begin a new, Sunday, Bible study on December 4th on the book of Titus.
In His Grace,
Pastor Wiist
