This morning, I woke up thanking God for life and for another day to learn to love Him more. This is a habit I have been working towards, and it was wonderful that it just happened without thinking about it. I started smiling, and thinking how many people might think it odd that God wants us to thank and praise Him. Scripture tells us to work towards humility, yet God desires our thanks and praise. Some might say that this is a bit hypocritical.
I suppose it can seem hypocritical, but God doesn’t want thanks and praise for His own benefit, but for ours. Jesus came to bring us fullness of life, and fullness of life is rooted in right relationship with God. Thus, to live the fullness of life, we must recognize Him for who He is. We must treat Him as He deserves to be treated. We must remember that He gives us more than we could ever endeavor to give him.
We can see some aspects of this in parent / child relationships. It doesn’t make sense to a child that he or she must be respectful to a parent or follow the parent’s instructions. Hopefully, as the child grows, he or she will realize how these things prepared him or her for the “real world.” Hopefully, the parent wasn’t teaching the child things for the parent’s glory, but we are a world full of sinners. I am sure such things happen. However, such things cannot happen with God who is without sin.
The truth is, God has no need of praise. In fact, He has no need of us at all. Unlike every other creation story in history, God didn’t create us to be His slaves. He made us to participate in His glory; in His greatness. In order to achieve this, we have to have right relationship with Him. We have to work each day to practice right living. We must invite the Holy Spirit into our weaknesses and ask Him to teach us His ways. We need to learn to detach from worldly things so that we can more fully live a life with Him and in Him. We need to thank Him and praise Him for our lives, and always remember that everything we have and are (except sin) is because of Him. His ways are beyond us. Thus, it shouldn’t surprise us when we do what he asks, even if it is nonsensical, and find ourselves more content, happy, and fulfilled.
Spend some time with the Holy Spirit asking Him to lead you to a greater place of gratitude. Ask Him to show you His love and His truth. Ask Him what steps you can take today to live more fully the life He intended for you. Then, thank and praise Him for the life He has given you.
In Him,
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