The Response That Magnifies God: Thanksgiving

Yesterday’s message talked about how we should see and remember the greatness of God. Today I want to continue this and discuss what our response should be if we do, in fact, see and remember His greatness. The question we need to consider is, “What response will magnify Him best?” or “What must the human telescope do in order to cause God to appear as great as He really is?”

Psalm 69:30 answers: "I will magnify God with thanksgiving." When we give thanks to Him from our hearts, God is magnified. Therefore, we see that gratitude glorifies God.

You may be wondering why this is so… The answer is simple: Givers are more glorious than receivers. When we thank God, we acknowledge and display that He is the Giver. We pay Him a high compliment. Just like when we thank people - it magnifies them, because we are giving them a compliment.

So when we refuse to assume the role of a receiver, as an undeserving and helpless beneficiary of mercy, who should give thanks to God, we are belittling Him.

As an antidote to this arrogance in worship, God prescribes the opposite: "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanks!" Acknowledge God as the Giver and accept the lowly status of receiver. This is what magnifies God. That's why the last verse of Psalm 50 (23) says, "He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors Me." So when David says in Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise," he is simply describing the only sort of heart from which the sacrifice of genuine thanksgiving can flow.

Until the stiffness of man's arrogant neck is broken and the hardness of his self-sufficient heart is softened, he will never be able to offer genuine thanks to the true God, and therefore will not magnify God but only himself.

"Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility . . . for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you" (1 Peter 5:5-6).

My challenge for this group today is for us to cease to be great in our own eyes and become small so that He might appear as great as He truly is. Let us praise Him for who He is!

Blessings,
Shannon

“Who You Are” by Desperation Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMC1j_zQMK4