Daily Devotional - Thank God

I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. 
—Psalm 9:1 NKJV

Throughout the Bible we see people celebrating progress and victory in a variety of ways. One way was to specifically take the time to give an offering to God and to thank Him.

Noah had been in the ark one year and ten days when God told him it was time to go forth and begin a new life. I cannot even imagine how happy he and his family (and the animals) were to see dry ground. The first thing Noah did was to build an altar to the Lord and sacrifice various animals to Him. In Noah’s day this was the acceptable method of giving to God and showing appreciation for what He had done. God was pleased when He smelled the pleasant odor and He pronounced a blessing on Noah and his sons (see Genesis 9:1).

Abram (later renamed Abraham) regularly built altars to God and sacrificed, giving praise and thanks to God for his progress as he journeyed through the land (see Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4). God was leading him, taking care of him and keeping him safe. Surely at the end of each day we should take time to celebrate that God has kept us safe and enabled us to do whatever needed to be done.

We would quickly add a lot of celebration to our lives if we would take time to give thanks and perhaps some other type of offering when God does amazing things for us. An attitude of gratitude shows a lot about the character of a person. We should never have an attitude of entitlement, but we should have one that says, “I know I don’t deserve God’s goodness, but I am sure grateful for it.”

Love God Today: God, help me be the most thankful person in the world. I never want to take your goodness for granted, so please help me celebrate all you have done are doing and will do in my life.