“ O Give Thanks unto the Lord!” an Evening Meditation
"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits." Psalms 103, 1. 2.
If we wish to retain the blessings of the Reformation, we must
be grateful for them. That we possess them is due to no merit of
our own. We owe it entirely to God’s grace. But God’s grace will
not forever remain with the ungrateful. One of the most stirring
passages Luther ever penned is that in which he showed his
people how the Gospel in the past has often been withdrawn from
those who proved themselves ungrateful. “ Palestine and the Orient
had it; but gone is gone, they now have the Turk. Rome and the
Latin country had it; but gone is gone, they now have the Pope.”
At the present time, four hundred years after the Reformation, we
must add: Germany had it; but gone is gone, they now have the
state church, filled with worldlings and infidels. To us here in
this New World God has been more gracious than ever before since
the time of Christ Himself. But unless we prove more grateful
than our predecessors, gone will be gone, and we, too, shall lose
the great blessings of the Reformation.
Let us, therefore, appreciate what God has given us. Let us
live and love as people whose hearts are filled with God’s bound
less grace. We have the truth of the pure and unadulterated
Gospel. Forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation was freely preached
to us and made ours by faith. Oh, how we should thank our God
that, despite our ingratitude, our indifference, and our lack of due
appreciation, He has preserved His Word, His precious Gospel, to
us in its purity all these many years!
Oh, therefore give thanks unto the Lord! Labor for the Lord
prompted by gratitude. You should feel as though you could not
do enough for Him, since He has done so much for you. And God
has promised His children that they will be abundantly rewarded
for all the labor they perform in His kingdom. His grace and
mercy is so bountiful that He gives them not only eternal life for
the sake of His beloved Son, but also additional glory in heaven,
according to the pleasure of His grace.
Prayer.
O gracious and loving Father in heaven, grant that we may
recognize all Thy blessings to be the result of Thy goodness, so
that we may render Thee heartfelt thanks. Continue to visit our
Lutheran Zion with Thy grace; develop and enrich it. Let the
Sun of Righteousness give warmth to the soil of many hearts and
send a plentiful rain, the Water of Life, into the barren hearts;
water the furrows and moisten the plowed ground; give Thine in-
crease to our spiritual harvest, so that our mission-fields may con-
tinue -to yield abundant crops, to the end that many may come to
the knowledge of the truth and that we may shout for joy and sing
Thy praise forevermore. Amen.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
