With a Grateful Heart

steps2successwithspiritualsolutions

Nov 3

**With a Grateful Heart Today's Devotional Final Edit November 3, 2023

"Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; Deliver me because of my enemies." —Psalm 69:16-18

This morning, I listened to a Devotional on Psalm 69, David's urgent plea for help in trouble. Psalm 69 has 36 verses and the first 29 verses lament his dilemma. "…Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters." [Verse 14]. But in verses 30 to 36, his focus shifts from himself to God.

King David began to praise God with a song of gratitude even before God answered. David remembered that God was always faithful and he thanked God in advance for His love and mercies always extended to the righteous. Like David, we also have many God-given victories that perhaps we have forgotten.

"The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all." —Psalm 34:17-19

We usually pray for God's Divine intervention when faced with a challenge that is impossible for us to resolve. Certainly, God honors our faith when we pray for His Divine intervention, believing that He will deliver us, yet, we were created to worship God. Consider this thought, for all the daily blessings we receive without asking, wouldn't God expect us to send up many praises and prayers of gratitude every day?

Sadly, prayers asking for God to bless us with our desires far outweigh our prayers of praise and gratitude. Imagine a child who only said I love you to their parents when they desired a new toy.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." — John 3:16

Our heartfelt words of gratitude for the mercies of a new day should be our first spoken words every morning. Throughout our waking hours, we can pray short prayers of thanksgiving for God's abundant love, the gracious gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ, His mercies of forgiving and forgetting our sins, the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom, and the angel armies who protect us from spiritual warfare and physical harm.

As we end our day with evening worship, our spoken words should be praises of gratitude for all the [spiritual and material] blessings we received for the given day. With reverence, we enter into our secret closets and shut out the voices and distractions vying for our attention because we are in the presence of a Holy and Righteous God.

The Holy Spirit renews our minds, bodies, and souls by giving us spiritual strength and the gift of peace. We also receive the spiritual wisdom and discernment needed to study and gain in-depth meaning of the Scriptures. We have the privilege to boldly approach the throne of grace with the expectation of the Holy Spirit interceding and taking our prayers to our Heavenly Intercessor, our King, Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

We do not have the power to schedule appointments with influential people or dignitaries, yet, the Supreme Ruler of this Universe, our Holy and Righteous Father God tells us to come boldly and enter His presence. For this reason alone, we should fall to our knees in humility thanking Him for His forever love and abundant grace, mercies, and blessings. Truly He is Worthy of our love, loyalty, and gratitude.

"We love him, because he first loved us." —1 John 4:19

Prayer: God, with grateful hearts, we thank You for the rivers of grace, mercies, and blessings that flow from Your loving heart. Every day we receive abundant blessings that we do not deserve. Forgive us for the blessings that we never acknowledged or thanked you for. Thank You, Lord! We ask this prayer of forgiveness and thanksgiving in Jesus' Holy Name. Amen.