Atleast Say Thank You!




I give honor to God today.
I thank him for my life, health, and strength. 
I thank him for the activities of my limbs,  
I thank him for bringing me over the dangerous highways.
I thank him for  keeping me from dangers seen and unseen. I'm saved, sanctified, 
and filled with the precious Holy Ghost, and that with a mighty burning fire.
And I do speak in tongues as the spirit gives utterance! 

As a young girl growing up, I thought that was a cute little speech that you had to say when you stood before the people in church.  I used to think it was a rehearsed cliché that the mothers testified to each other. 
Looking back now, it seems like every Sunday we went to altar and "got saved"! It was just something the young people did- either on our own, because our friends went, or because Mama said so.  

When I got saved for real, the Lord did a good job! He showed me a better way to live and offered me his love. As I served him with my whole heart, I began to understand what it meant to have a relationship with God.  When I was feeling unworthy, he gave me confidence.  When my heart was overwhelmed, he comforted me.  And when I failed him, more times than I care to count, he forgave me. 

Suddenly, that cute little speech became my testimony.  With every test and heartache, those words were seared into my spirit.  I began to realize that my very existence was only because of the grace of God.  His mercy allowed me life everyday.  His love keeps my heart and mind stayed on him.  What a mighty God I serve!  Looking at the world, there is so much destruction and defeat in the land, but God keeps on blessing me.  I wake up and dress myself everyday.  I feed myself.  I have the ability to walk into the house of the Lord.  No one has to wheel me in.  I can lift my voice and bless God. 

These may be things we take for granted, but the truth is: God doesn't have to allow us any of these luxuries. Everything that he does for us is a miracle in its own way and the least we can do is say thank you.  Have you thanked God for what seems like the little things?  Or have you realized that nothing God does is little?

The next time you hear that cute little speech, remember those aren't just words. That speech acknowledges our sovereign God and our faithful gratitude!

Mama used to say that when someone does something for you, you should atleast say thank you!

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall thereof and be glad.  O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.  Psalm 34:1-3


Reaching the lost at any cost, 

Pastor Odie Kennedy

Image Credit: Dominik Gwarek


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