Psalm 134:1-2, “Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.” Psalm 146:1-2, “Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.” We have a command to bless the Lord at all times. We also have promised, like the Psalmist, that we will praise the Lord as long as we live. Oftentimes we say thanks to the Lord, sing to Him in church, lift up our hand “in worship” to Him, etc. The question is, however, are we really thankful to God? Is our soul really blessing Him or are we just singing, especially when we are in the midst of other Christians because we do not want people to think that something is wrong with us? God knows if our singing, dancing, etc. are coming from our heart or not.
One reason why a lot of Christians are not really blessing the Lord from their soul is that they fail to count their blessings and see how good God has been to them. The Psalmist said in Psalm 103:1-2, “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.” Many quote this scripture, but oftentimes they forget God’s benefits. One of the benefits we are enjoying, which we are not supposed to forget is life (we are alive both physically and spiritually). As long as we are still alive every other issue is secondary because according to the Preacher there is hope for those who are still alive (Ecclesiastes 9:4). Salvation, the prospect of eternal life, the person that brought you to Christ, the people that God used to disciple and groom you in the faith, all the pastors you have ever had, the living church you attend, the privilege of serving God, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, functional physical and spiritual eyes and ears, good health and functional body parts for you and your loved ones are other blessings for which you should be grateful to God. If you have family members and friends, you are not alone and therefore you should be grateful to God. You should also be thankful to God for your enemies and those who hate you because if you allow God He can use the hatred and bad treatment they mete out to you to teach you tolerance, patience and how to love those who hate you. You should also thank God for food, clothes, job/business, sanity, people you look up to in the faith, people who look up to you and also answered prayers. We are even to thank God for unanswered prayers because in everything He works for the good of those who love Him, according to Romans 8:28. These are just very few of the reasons we have to be thankful to God. However, a person who does not take time to consider the work of God in his life/family and to realize how blessed he is will never know how to appreciate and thank God.
Too much preoccupation with the negatives, troubles, problems, prayers that seem not to be answered, etc. can also make a person fail to appreciate God because he is not able to see the things that God is actually doing for him. Ezekiel 1:1, “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” If Ezekiel was able to see visions of God even in the situation in which he found himself, it is possible to bless God from one’s soul no matter the situation one is in. Make a choice to focus on the blessings you are enjoying and not on things you desire and do not have yet.
There are people who are very grateful to God for what He is doing for them until they notice what He is doing in the lives of some other people. They begin to feel like God is being unfair to them because as far as they are concerned He is doing more for others. Sometimes it is not only ungratefulness towards God that sets in but also envy and ill will towards the person you think is more favored than you are.
When a person believes that he deserves more blessing than God is giving to him he might become ungrateful and have difficulty blessing God. If you are in this category, look at Psalm 115:1-2, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?” Also Isaiah 48:11,“For Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it: for how should My Name be polluted? and I will not give My glory unto another.” Understand that God does not have to do anything for any of us. He is just being good to us when He blesses us. He does not bless us because we deserve to be blessed but because He delights in doing good things. If you have this understanding, praises will flow from your heart to Him.
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