Week 2: Gratitude

But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. (1 Samuel 12:24 NIV)

     Every month there is a reason to show honor to those around us by saying "Thank You" for who you are and what you do. Every year in the month of May we celebrate all the mothers in the world, and do the same for all the fathers in June. We have labor day for those who work, memorial day for the fallen soldiers, and Veterans day for those who has given service in our military. We give our respects to those who are to be remembered on 9/11. We have Teacher Appreciation Day, Grandparents Day, and even Cafeteria Worker Appreciation Week.
We come up with every reason to celebrate our Pastors, Doctors and Nurses, Husbands and Wives, friends and family, and children; but how often do we seek to honor and show our appreciation towards God. We don't at least not very often in a genuine sense, we carelessly say "Thank you Father" as we pray.
This week is going to be different. As we enter our prayer closets this week we will focus on the wonderful things that God has done. This week it is necessary to show our gratitude by simply saying "thank you" to God for all He has done. All this week we shall seek God simply to give Him his overdue expression of appreciation. What we fail to realize is that God is everlasting, and only what He does will stand up to the test of time. So why do we show gratitude to everybody else, and not Him is beyond me, because only the very things He controls will truly shine in the darkest of times.
It does not matter how small the act of love is, or how great the magnitude of mercy, it is the fact that God Himself cared enough about YOU to wake YOU up and give YOU another chance to get it right. God has given many of us a financial breakthrough, we have thanked the person He has used, but never thanked the Lord for sending them. God has blessed us with mentors and advisors, but we have never thanked Him for the encouraging words that God gave them to speak to us.
We as a community have thanked many people, uplifting the man and honoring his deeds, but never have truly honored God who gave the messenger the message and visionary the vision. We have allowed the physical world to distract us yet again from our spiritual world, which is where God lives. After today we will strive to focus more on the spiritual world, we shall listen to the words that Samuel have spoken in this chapter, in verse 20 and 21, he tells his people that they have done wrong, but has been awarded grace yet again, and to get it right and never go back to worshipping and idolizing  the unworthy beings of this physical world.
If you do not know where to start just think about all that God have granted you grace for. Things like sexual immortally, watching explicit content, being disobedient to your elders, better yet to God's word. If that does not work what have you put before God, have you worshipped or idolized something. It could be money, sex, relationships, famous people, or even your parents. Do some soul searching and look to the Lord and give Him the thanks and the praise for His grace and mercy.