Never let them hear the last word
by PASTOR MARK LOVE
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Rockford
At a Bible study on thankfulness, the group was discussing the best way we can express our thankfulness to God for all that He has done. Idea after idea was given on how each Christian could best express their thankfulness. One member of the class, a doctor at a children’s hospital, told of how a small patient taught him to express his thankfulness.
“One little fellow had to have some dead bone removed from his arm. He had a long recovery from the surgery and was aware that I had taken a good deal of interest in him. The morning he was to be discharged, he asked the nurses to page me to come and see him. When I reached his room, he was sitting in a wheelchair, waiting. I kneeled down and said to him, ‘Well, Willie, I hear you wanted to see me. What can I do for you?’ The little fellow took his right arm and lifted up his limp left arm and hand on my shoulder and then put his right on my other shoulder. Believing that he wanted to give me a hug, I moved forward to give him a hug. When his head drew near my ear he whispered to me, ‘Doctor, my momma will never hear the last word about you.’ I have never heard nor ever been so touched by someone’s gratitude as I was with the words of this young man. If you really want to know the best way to express our gratitude and thankfulness to God, then never let anyone you know hear the last word about God and the blessings He gives each of us.”
Can you think of a better way to express your gratitude—your thankfulness to God?
In the first verse of Psalm 105, God tells us to give Him thanks in exactly this way: ”Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.”
Whenever you or I tell someone something great that this person or that did for us, there is no doubt in their minds that we are grateful and happy for what this person has done. This kind of gratitude is genuine and it is real, and this is the kind of gratitude and thanksgiving God wants from all mankind.
As believers whom God has called and saved through Jesus Christ, we respond to His saving work according to the words of Isaiah in Chapter 12: “In that day you will say: ‘I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.’ In that day you will say: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.’”
As you and your family prepare for the fast-approaching holiday season, I pray that no one will never hear the last word of all the wondrous things He has done for you in Jesus Christ.
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