- araratchurch
- Nov 26
- 2 min read
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!”
Psalm 103:1-2, 20-22 ESV
In our discussion concerning giving thanks to God, we have more than once employed Psalm 103. Although this psalm is often quoted within the context of giving thanks to God, there may be something about it you have not noticed.
In Psalm 103, the “audience” being addressed most often, is David, himself. In other words, David is not only instructing his soul to bless the Lord, he is also rehearsing to himself why he should do so.
The writer of Psalm 42 similarly instructs his soul to give praise to the Lord:
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”
Psalm 146:1-3 ESV
Note as well that the instruction to trust in the Lord, rather than trusting other men, is also addressed to the psalmist himself.
It seems that people wait until they FEEL like doing something like giving the Lord thanks, before they actually do it. The thing is, the habits we have developed, tend to linger on unless they are confronted and replaced. Those who are not in the habit of regularly thanking the Lord and elaborating on His goodness to themselves, tend to stay petty and ungrateful. as we have discussed on Day 1 of our little journey into “Giving Thanks to God 2025.”
Our goal should be to train our hearts and minds toward a daily attitude of gratitude for all the Lord has done. Truly, our words of thanks to the One who has given us so much, could never begin to express the gratitude owed to He Who is our All in All.
Child of God, don’t allow your thoughts, emotions, affections, and so on, to go in the direction of ingratitude. God is too good to be given the “silent treatment,” in terms of our gratitude. Instruct your soul to bless Him, to thank Him, to praise Him; and keep on doing so until it becomes a new glorious habit!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Nov 24
- 2 min read
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV
Generally, when people are trying to decide between jobs or other opportunities, great consideration is given to the benefits that come with their choice. Indeed, benefits are important, as they can greatly affect our quality of life.
Yet, when it comes to the Lord, the benefits He offers are often minimized or outright ignored by some, such that their decisions seem to scorn the goodness of God.
The fact is, the Lord has done for us far above what we could have imagined; even now, we only realize a fraction of our benefits from the Lord.
Think of it: The Lord has taken us out of darkness into His glorious light! Talk about a quality of life impact!
“giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.“
Colossians 1:12-14 NKJV
In our opening scripture, the psalmist enumerates several awesome benefits from the Lord:
1. The Lord forgives our sins.
2. The Lord heals our diseases.
3. The Lord redeems our life from destruction.
4. The Lord gives us lovingkindness and mercy.
5. The Lord fills our lives with good things.
6. The Lord gives us strength.
Child of God, it would take the rest of our days to fully extol the Lord’s benefits. He is so good! Let us never, ever forget His benefits. Let us give Him thanks!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Nov 23
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 4
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Romans 1:21-25 ESV
Ironically, ingratitude is more often observed among those who are actually better off than the multitudes of people all over the world suffering great want. It seems that the more people have, the more they desire, becoming petty and ungrateful.
Paul warned that the ingratitude we are seeing in our society, indeed, seen in many parts of the world, is one of the signs of living in the Last Days before the coming of Jesus.
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!“
II Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV
Notice that Paul ranks being unthankful, with sins we might deem as being much worse.
In our opening scripture we see Paul commenting concerning the attitudes and behaviors that lead a person to become foolish and spiritually blind:
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Child of God, ingratitude toward God, isn’t just ill-advised, it’s a sin. And as we have seen, ingratitude leads to spiritual blindness. The fact is, if we really understood what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, the sin of ingratitude would be much less of a temptation.
Lord willing, we will discuss this further, next time.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!