Open Heavens Devotional, Tuesday 1 January 2013: GIVE THANKS by Pastor E. A. Adeboye

Memorise: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.                                                                                       Psalm 100:4

Read: Psalm 100: 1 – 5.

Bible in one year: Proverbs 1 – 3.

Action point:  This New Year gives you fresh twelve months to live, serve and glorify God. Thank God for this!

Welcome to Year 2013. How you start a year is very important both to God and yourself. Psalm 100:4 says:

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and His name."

If you start with thanks, you will likely end with praise; but if you start with ingratitude or complaints, don't be ed if you end with regrets. One way to forestall  regret is to be actively engaged in thanksgiving.

In the Bible, we have several situations where thanksgiving en first place and eventually it gave birth to a outcome. Why? It is because thanksgiving is of delivering miracles to thank givers. Let us take Jesus Christ as our example here. After feeding a crowd that d Him for three days with the Word of life, the need > feed them physically. A!! that was available were 3 loaves of bread and a few little fishes. This was compared to the thousands present. They were no way close to the city where they could buy food, even they were, it would have cost them so much. So in the tack and gross insufficiency, the Lord gave thanks. At the end, everybody was filled and lots of extras (Matthew 15:32-38).               

Similarly, after Lazarus died and was buried, the Lord Jesus was brought to the scene. Four days after his burial, he was already stinking and all hope was lost. But on getting to Lazarus’ grave, the Lord engaged in thanksgiving and thereafter, His desired miracle of life was delivered (John 11: 38 – 44). If you can begin each day of this New Year with robust thanksgiving. It wilt deliver to you your desired miracles. When all efforts fail and when you have a hopeful situation, immediately engage in thanksgiving. When facing a period of inadequacy, try giving thanks to God. Thank God for keeping you from your birth till this day. Thank Him for watching over you and your family. Thank Him for His miraculous interventions in your life. In lack, thank Him for all previous provisions and thank Him for the little you have. Take time to pray and seek His face anything but just thanking Him. He deserves your thanks, and expects it too!