By Gbemiga Olakunle
“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 his benefits.Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases;Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy Youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”– Psalm 103: 1-5, KJV.
Giving thanks is synonymous with showing gratitude or appreciation to the giver for the received favour or blessings. The giver of the gifts can either be GOD or any of our fellow human beings.
Even when we know that all blessings divinely originate from GOD using any available human channel to communicate to us, we should also show some appreciation to the vessel that He has used to bless us while we direct our thanksgiving to GOD.
From the Scripture quoted above, we can recognise the facts our whole existence and well-being are attributable to GOD’S benevolent acts.
What are therefore the benefits of giving thanks?
1. It enables us to maintain the flow. A Yoruba adage says “ Ti omode ba dupe oore ana, a ri omiran gba ( If a child is grateful for yesterday’s gift, he/she will receive another one)”.
2. It confirmed the blessings. When our LORD JESUS CHRIST healed the 10 lepers. He noticed that it was only one of them that returned to show his appreciation for the healing. And that singular act made the Great Physician to pronounce the man whole. That meant the grateful man’s healing was confirmed and there wouldn’t be any trace of leprosy in his genealogy again.
3. It maintains our relationship with the giver and opens other doors: Just a simple act of showing gratitude for any favour received no matter how small will cement our relationship with the giver and may provoke the personality or the organization to do more.
The list is endless. There are many more that we may not be able to discuss within this limited space.
Let us, therefore, cultivate a good attitude of showing appreciation for any favour received from anyone and even from our friends or family members. Nothing should be taken for granted.
More importantly, our gratitude should go to GOD Who is the Giver of all gifts and blessings. Even when our expectations do not materialise the way we wanted them, we should still show our appreciation to Him. He is the Omniscient GOD Who knows the end of a matter from its beginning.
General elections
Going forward, as regards the outcomes of the recently held General Elections in our Nation, we should give Him thanks. For maintaining the peace for us before, during and aftermath of the electoral exercises, our GOD deserves our hearts of gratitude.
And as we embraced and continued to uphold these right attitudes, things will continue to get better in our Nation as a whole and in our respective families and local communities in JESUS’ Name.
Shalom!
– ‘Gbemiga OLAKUNLE, JP is the General Secretary of National Prayer Movement