Blessed Be The Lord God of Israel
By Pastor Mitch
December 25, 2020
REFLECTING ON HAVING A SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING
I really like this series of Christmas icare articles focusing on the different features of the spirit of Christmas. Pastor wrote on the spirit of faith, the spirit of rejoicing, the spirit of giving and more. The one that impacted my heart the most is the spirit of thanksgiving. I am deeply challenged to have a spirit of thanksgiving despite the challenges of life. Pastor wrote of how a good expression of thanksgiving is to bless the Lord God.
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,…” Luke 1:67
Blessing the Lord is about finding good and suitable words to exalt the Lord and His name. It is praising the Lord out of a heart that is full of thanksgiving. Zacharias was just filled with thanksgiving as he meditated on the Lord and on what He had done.
REASONS FOR GIVING THANKS
1. The Lord’s work of salvation
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David…” Luke 1:68-69
It is the Lord God who has remembered His people, identified with them and have sought to redeem them through the Lord Jesus. He has been raised up as a powerful horn of salvation. It takes nothing less than the great power of the Lord to bring about salvation for all. In Zacharias’ mind, these things were as good as done, even though the Lord Jesus was not born yet. This Christmas and beyond, I appreciate even more our salvation in Christ.
2. The Lord’s keeping of His covenant – promise
To perform the mercy promised to our father and to remember His holy covenant…” Luke 1:72
Pastor also write of how we can give thanks for how the Lord had specially kept the promise of His covenant. There was the promise of His mercy and He indeed showed forth His mercy to His people by sending Jesus to earth on Christmas day. The promise of His covenant was remembered and honoured. There was deliverance given through Christ. God kept His promises.
CULTUVATING THIS SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING
As I thought about this during Christmas week, I am determined to cultivate this spirit of thanksgiving even more. The sadness of my father’s passing still looms from time to time and my mother is still in hospital and will be for a while. The challenge for me is to cultivate a stronger spirit of thanksgiving, to continue to give thanks even on tiring and challenging days. I can cultivate this spirit of thanksgiving by meditating more on the Lord, His works and His promises and to pray. My personal challenge is to exercise faith to give thanks always. Young people, let’s cultivate a stronger spirit of thanksgiving as we end the year and look forward to the new year. May we seek to do all things especially serving the Lord with thanksgiving.
