Times & Seasons
AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE (EDITORIAL)
by Rev. Renato J. Mendoza
“How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me?” PSALM 116:12
We know that every person who had been saved and washed clean by the Lord was redeemed by grace through faith (Eph.2:8,9). There’s nothing we can add or do about it. We’ve started this amazing journey of faith in the Almighty because of His “unmerited favor” (another word for grace).
From the very beginning, this thought puzzled me as a young believer. To appropriate what He did without a catch, to eat a sumptuous meal and not paying for it, for God to save me and not want anything from me in return but to say “thank you” was quite strange.
Although we became comfortable with the idea as time passed by, my question still lingers - Is there anything I can do for all that God has done to my life and yours?
I came across this passage and here David asked the same thing. Not “Lord, what must I do to be saved?” but “How can I repay You for Your goodness to me?” After all, prophet Micah told us, “What does the Lord require of you?” (6:8)
Yes, no doubt about it. We cannot earn our way to God. We cannot have our own “stairway to heaven.” But there are scriptural ways to give thanks.Let me share with you some:
Accept God’s offer of salvation
I know eternal life is God’s free gift (Rom.6:23), but accepting is an act needed to become His child (Jn.1:12). Someone said salvation is free but it is definitely not cheap! Not receiving the gift that is yours would mean that you will not enjoy that gift even though your name’s on it.
Believe in His promises
Many were not able to enter the Lord’s rest due to unbelief (Heb.3:19). Jesus didn’t do many miracles because of their lack of faith. One father said to Jesus, “Help me overcome my unbelief.” It would be wise for us to acknowledge God’s promises, remember them in our hearts and minds, and live by them daily.
Commit ourselves in the center of God’s will
“Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in His commands,” “I delight in Your commands because I love them,” David confessed (Pss.112:1, 119:47). “If you love Me,” Jesus said, “you will obey what I command” (Jn.14:15). Serving God should never be a burden. We must begin to realize that our service to Him is the response our hearts make out of our love for Him. We are His and for Him alone.
These were simple but very important things to remember as we continue on in our walk with God. Make He takes pleasure in our desire to please Him in every way (see 2 Cor.5:9).
God bless us all!
THE TALE OF TWO WIDOWS
(I Kings 17:7-16, 2 Kings 4:1-7)
By Pastor Derrick Paul M. Anselmo
We can learn from the two
widows depicted in the passages above. The widow of Zarepah in 1 Kings was
asked by a man of God for bread form their last supply of food during a time of
famine. She hesitated at first but, eventually, complied to Elijah’s request
when God’s promise for her was rewarded. Sure enough, what she predicted to be
their last meal turned out to be the first of plenty, “…for the jar of flour
was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of
the Lord spoken by Elijah.” (1Kings 17:11)
The widow of 2 Kings had
additional predicaments.
Having owed a larger sum of
money to an auditor, she was faced with a dilemma of losing her two sons to
slavery as payment. After consulting Elisha, she ended up receiving a rather
strange instruction that she pour the little remaining oil that she had in the
house and pour it into all the empty jars that they were able to get from their
neighbors and fill them up to the brim. But “strangeness” did not stop her from
obeying God’s word. As prophesied, the oil did not stop pouring until all the
empty jars were filled. Where did all the oil come from? She sold all the oil
and paid her debt and lived comfortably with the money they were left.
We can learn from the story
of the two widows that miracles do happen when we learn to let go in faith. The
two widows when down morsel of flour and few drops of oil. Sometimes, we tend
to hold on to them for fear of not being able to replenish them tomorrow. But,
in order to see miracles, we must learn to let go of even the little that we
have. Because in the Kingdom
of God - “losing” is
“gaining so much more.” How were the five thousand people fed? When the boy was
willing to give his small lunch of bread and two fish to Jesus. By letting go,
the windows were able to tap in God’s unlimited resources!
Let us do the same and learn
generosity in the time of crisis.
Let us experience God’s
miracle every single day of our life.
