Psalm 50:23 “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honour me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”
“Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder” — G.K. Chesterton.
A grateful heart and thankful lips are the sweetest offering we can offer to the Lord. It doesn’t matter where we are in life or how tough the trial is, we can always be grateful and offer thanksgiving offerings to the Lord. Gratitude keeps us joyful and peaceful. Thankful lips and a grateful heart beautifies us inside out. Gratitude sees the fingerprints of God in everything but ingratitude blinds the eye to the goodness of God. So it is important to put on thanksgiving and gratitude like a cloak every day. The cloak of gratitude and thankfulness will infuse a sweet aroma of godliness around us wherever we go and in whatever we do. There is an inexplicable fragrance of pleasantness around people who are thankful and grateful.
The Lord God preserved Noah and his family along with the animals and the birds from the great devastating floods and as soon as Noah stepped out of the boat he offered a sacrifice of “thanksgiving” to the Lord with all the clean animals. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done (Genesis 8:21). An offering of thanksgiving from a grateful heart rises up to heaven as a sweet-smelling aroma. Noah stepped into a barren and empty world. There were no people, no houses, no habitation, no roads and no grocery shops! There were no neighbours to greet him or relatives to wish him. Yet he chose to praise the Lord by building an altar of thanksgiving. There was no law that required him to offer thanksgiving sacrifices. Noah’s thanksgiving offering, from the fullness of his heart, was a sweet smelling offering to the Lord.
Thanksgiving Offering:
1. Infuse: Complaints stinks but thankfulness infuses a sweet smelling scent of godliness and gentleness. A thankful spirit sees God in everything. Gratitude infuses a sweet aroma that attracts heaven.
2. Defuse: Thankfulness defuses the smelly dissatisfaction and gratitude neutralizes grouchiness. Gratitude defuses the demonic arrows of dissatisfaction. Put on the garment of praise, thanksgiving and gratitude and defuse doubt, discontent and disbelief.
3. Confuse: Praise confuses the devil and throws hell into confusion. The fragrance of thanksgiving is the “demon-repellent” that kills diabolical influence in our domain. Just as cinnamon, eucalyptus, or clove oils repel snakes and venomous serpent away, praise repels demons. Discombobulate the demons with your praise through the difficulties, disappointments and derision.
Let the fire on the altar of gratitude keep burning and the sweet aroma of gratitude, thankfulness and praise rise up to heaven. Never forget to use the demon-repellent of praise to destroy the diabolical incursion.
Psalm 50:14: “Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving! Fulfill the promises you made to the Most High!”
Prayer: Father God, I can thank you at all times, all seasons and through the darkness and the bright light as your goodness has no end and your mercies are never-ending. Amen.
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