2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits--
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psalms103:2-5
Selwyn Hughes' second law of Spiritual Success is about learning to cultivate a gratitude attitude. This overcomes the weeds of dissatisfaction and discontent that so easily take root in our souls (but more on this tomorrow)
A gratitude attitude is about counting blessings, seeing life as a gift and, ultimately, seeing beyond the gift to the Giver. Selwyn Hughes offers the lovely quote: “One of the worst moments for an atheist is when he feels thankful for some special blessing but has no-one to thank�!
In this Psalm David acknowledges that we easily forget God's benefits. As we will see in tomorrow's eDev, we are very easily prone to rampant dissatisfaction: an entitlement attitude. It takes ongoing re-focussing to stay on the gratitude track.
David gives us a very meaningful continuum of benefits:
- Forgiveness
- Redemption (salvation)
- Love and Compassion (New every morning according to Lamentations 3)
- The gift of blessings and good things that keep our hearts young
A Biblical gratitude attitude is a God-ward one. We are not simply grateful in a general sense, but grateful to the Giver because the abundance that we have learned to recognise in life speaks of the abundance of who He is.
Next week we will talk about being grateful in tough circumstances, but for now the focus is on the Giver.
May it be that we realise that "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:16
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
