“Come
and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of
men.”(Psalm 66:5 NKJV)
We
just turned the corner into the second half of the year. I feel it is a good
time to pause and count our blessings and name them one by one. This is
necessary because if one does not recognises what God has done, one may never
consider it necessary to return thanks to God. Recall the reaction of our Lord
after He healed ten lepers and only one turned up for thanksgiving. “Jesus asked, “Weren’t ten men healed? Where
are the other nine? Why was this foreigner the only one who came back to thank
God?” Then Jesus told the man, “You may get up and go. Your faith has made you
well” (Luke 17:17-19 CEV). Notice that the person who returned to thank God
for being cleansed for leprosy was not a Jew but a Samaritan! Our Lord
expressed surprise and admiration to this Samaritan for his sense of
appreciation and respect for Him. What
can we say about the nine Jewish lepers who were also healed, but never
bothered to show up for thanksgiving?
First,
they took Christ and His blessings for granted. One meaning of taking someone
for granted is when you fail to properly appreciate the person for favour the
person had done for you, especially as a result of over-familiarity. Those nine
lepers being Jews felt that Jesus is one of them and that they have a right to
his services anytime they need it without showing any appreciation. Their attitude revealed their gross
underestimation of the value of Christ and His ministry. You take God for
granted when you fail to show that you are grateful to Him for blessing you
even in the slighted way or when fail to appreciate Him for being there for you
always. The degree of familiarity with God that would result in taking Him for
granted must be discountenanced. The way to avoid over-familiarity with God
that leads to contempt, we must constantly pray with the Psalmist, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in
Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name” (Psalm 86:11 NKJV). God
invites us to intimacy and not familiarity.
We must ever pray to live in His fear and never try to take Him for
granted in any way.
As
we look back to the past six months, there abound reasons to thank God and
praise His Name. Each of us must make
notes of these favours and for each of them give God profuse praise. As a
ministry, God has steadily blessed CRM in so many ways. We dedicated several
church building both within and outside of Nigeria. God protected us in our
journeys and several souls have been brought into the kingdom through our
ministries. We have seen several healings, deliverances and other miraculous
interventions of God in our lives. For us here in particular, the Holy Ghost
Power Explosion this year was a watershed experience. God honoured us in
remarkable ways and blessed us. Before that, we have had a weekend of Signs and
wonders in which God blessed us profusely. Our Sunday services and other weekly
activities have continued to be inspiring and enlightening. Our evangelistic
outreaches have been moments of great visitations. Many people have been helped
through the free Medicare we held in different communities. God has indeed been good to us. We have
reasons to praise Him and celebrate His mercies towards us.
Several
of our sisters had their babies without must hassles. Some of us got married,
some graduated from schools, some completed their national youth service, some
bought cars, some prospered in their businesses and all of us enjoyed peace in
our families. Great indeed is the faithfulness of God. We must therefore join
the Psalmist to invite the world, “Come
and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.”
Each of us must invite the rest of us to showcase the blessings of God in our
lives. In so doing, we will be setting the stage for what He has in store for
us in the second half of the year. This month of July will be a month of
repositioning. God will reposition you strategically for more blessing. Let us
prepare to be moved to vantage positions both in the spirit realm and in the
physical. Since promotion comes only
from God, remember to give Him glory when He repositions for favour. The reposition processes will be by divine
arrangement not man. As we all look forward to a happy month, “I commend you to God and to the word of His
grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all
those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32 NKJV).
May the Lord bless you in the month of July and throughout the
entire second half of the year in Jesus name.
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