Giving God His Due Praise

Psalms 71:20, 23 NLT

“You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. I will shout for joy and sing your praises, for you have ransomed me.”

How easy it is to call on the name of the Lord in the day of trouble, but to forget him when he actually does deliver. How easy it is to attribute the Lord's gracious deliverance to mere luck or happenstance. 

In Luke 17:11-19, we read the story of a time Jesus healed 10 lepers. After being healed, they went on their way, but one of the men came back and thanked Jesus for what Jesus had done for him. Another great example is Noah. Noah was on the ark 40 days and 40 nights as the world was getting flooded. Yet after him and his family got off the ark, Noah built an altar to the Lord (Gen. 8:20).

I think too often, I land among the 90% of people who fail to give God his due praise. It's easy for me to thank God after a major breakthrough in life. But what I forget is that every breath is a gift. The food that I eat is a gift. The family I have is a gift. And I could keep going on and on. One pastor put it like this: If we truly grasped how good God is to us, we wouldn't need worship leaders. We would just be praising God all day long.

Lord, we are feeble and can often forget to be grateful. But we thank you for your mercy toward us. Give us glimpses of your goodness throughout the day, and give us the grace to praise you for that goodness! Remind us of your salvation and how you sustain us daily, getting us through the hardest of circumstances. Your kindness knows no bounds!

All praise, all glory, all honor be to God forever in the Hope-Empowering Name of Jesus of Nazareth! Amen and Amen!