Serve The Lord With Gladness & Thanksgiving!

Gladness: Being happy, being willing to help, grateful, joy and pleasure.

Thanksgiving: An expression of one gratitude, a celebration.

I realize that there is a lot going on in this world today, in fact, it’s enough to blow your mind, but I think it's important that we keep in mind that we didn't start those things and we can’t finish them. Of course, that's not to say that we shouldn't pray for our country - we absolutely should - especially as we see murder, sickness, and flooding going on in the world - and that's just the short list! However, after we have taken those things to Jesus, we must leave them at His feet. This allows us to move forward and serve Him with gladness, with joy, and pleasure as His Word has instructed us to do. We should never allow serving God to become a chore. Instead, let's strive to always serve him with an attitude of gratitude.

In the amplified version of Psalms 100: 1-5, David gives us some amazing advice:

"Make A joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing! Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He who has made us, not we ourselves (and we are His)! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations."

Serving the Lord with gladness and thanksgiving is easy! We can accomplish this by mentioning His Name to others and by acknowledging all the wonderful things He has done for us. Our God is awesome and truly worthy to be praised, so my friends I invite you to magnify the Lord with me, and let's exalt his name together!

                                                                                                                

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and … AMEN!                    

Praises To Our Gracious God!

Praise: To express approval; to glorify
Gracious: Full of compassion; merciful

Often times we don't give the Lord the praises that are due to His name. So this week, I want to do just that -- take a few minutes to brag on the merciful and gracious God. Our God who was, who is, and who will always be good!

If you have kids, then you probably know how much they love it when you praise them for what they have done. Well, it's not just our children who enjoy that, but if we're honest with ourselves, we would admit that we, as grown ups love it as well - and we have typically only done small things!! If we apply that same theory to our Lord and Savior, then it stands to reason that our heavenly Father loves our praises too, for He has surely done great and mighty things!

We will praise you, my God and King, and bless your name each day and forever; for you are great and greatly to be praised. You are full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord lifts the fallen and those who are bent beneath their loads. The eyes of all mankind look up to you for help; and you give them their food as they need it. You constantly satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. We praise you Lord because you are fair in everything you do, and are full of kindness. The eyes of all look up to you for help; and you give them what they need exactly as they need it.

The Lord is close to all who call on Him sincerely. He fulfills the desires of those who revere and trust Him. He hears our cries for help and rescues us. He protects all who love Him, and destroys the wicked. I will praise the Lord and call on all men everywhere to bless His Holy name forever and forever, for He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His wonderful name together, for He has done great things and His mercy endureth forever and ever! He is our rock, our fortress, our deliverer, our strength, the horn of our salvation, and our high tower. To sum it all up in a nut shell, He can do everything but fail - so why wouldn't we want to brag on our Lord who is so very worthy to be Praised?!

"O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth" (Isaiah 25:1)
                                                                                                                        
With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!            

Run YOUR Race!

Run: to contend in a race: to go without restraint
Race: a contest for a desired end, to run swiftly

So many times in this walk of life we play this "game" where we try to keep up with others. We see someone else buying a new house and all of a sudden, we want a new house. We see someone else start a business, and then we start talking about that business plan we supposedly had all those years ago. We see people getting married and having babies and the next thing you know, we're all up in our boyfriend's or girlfriend's faces pressuring them to marry us and have some babies. We see someone get a promotion when we wanted or expected that promotion and our wheels start turning - we start thinking about that long list of things we've done and start wondering why they got promoted and we didn't.

Often times we forget to think about how much those people have prayed, or how much they have sacrificed or the amount of years, tears and sweat it took to get them where we see them today. Most of the time we want God to give us everything on a silver platter -- but we haven't even paid the price for a platter yet! On this walk, it's imperative that we keep our eyes on our own walk and run at the pace that God allows us to run. As we talked about in the examples above, when we take our eyes off our own walk, it's way too easy to start comparing and grumbling about what someone has. That's when the slippery slope starts crumbling - when we've taken our eyes off the prize and taken on an ungrateful, envious, and jealous heart.

My friend, let's run our own race at our own pace, because when we move ahead of God, we miss the grace that He has set up for us at that particular time. Don't forget that God has us where we are for a reason and for a season. Don't base your walk on others - some are further along than others and some run faster while others run slower. Wherever you are in your race, simply trust God and keep moving!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

I'm Coming Out Of This!

Coming: arrive, arise, approach

Out: exhaustion, or completion

At some point, everybody is going to go through some trouble in this life. Haven't experienced any troubles yet? Keep living. Sometimes the situation can be very troublesome - like an unfavorable report from the doctor or a pink slip at work, a bad addiction, or your children going every which way except the right way, Covid 19. There may be times when we don't have enough money to make ends meet or there maybe a sick spouse that prevent their partner from going to work. Trouble comes in all sorts of packages. If you don't think so - I'll say it again - just keep living.

II Corinthians 4:17-18 reminds us; "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are not seen are eternal." In other words, we shouldn't focus on what you can see right now - the trouble all around us - but instead we should look forward to the joys in heaven which we have not yet seen. Those troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

Just like God took you in to it, He will allow you to come out of it.. in due time - HIS time. We will never know our true strength until we go through something. We would never know the magnitude of God's power or His love if we were always on a bed of ease. Fortunately, that's not God's way. No pain, no gain, my friends. That means that whatever we are going through, He will surely bring us out of, in His timing.

We must remember to count it all joy, because when it's too much for us, it's just right for God. Psalms 50:15 says; "I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give me glory." (The Living Bible)

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!