“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”” (Genesis 8:20–22, ESV)
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Grasping the enormity of God’s goodness is often difficult for us, to say the least. However, when God chooses to reboot our lives and allow us to re-enter into His gracious plan a second time – no matter what our personal situations have been – we have to stop and take into account what He is doing and how grateful we should be!
Noah chose the one position that always grabs God’s attention. He worshipped God with a sacrifice. When God releases us, the first and primary task of gratitude should be our generous and abundant thankfulness as expressed in something that is painful to give … hence, sacrifice.
Are you anticipating release from your confinement? Is God rescuing you? Has He already? Then the question on your heart should be simple: What will I give to God to show my true gratitude? And be careful. Some people, in the guise of being “spiritual”, are really just cheap!
What do I mean? I hear a lot of, “I will offer God my praise!”And what they mean is they will come to a service and sing songs and say, “Praise the Lord for His goodness!” And, that’s all well and good … but how does it bring about the pain of sacrifice? The animals Noah offered died. They were killed.
Plan now to show your gratitude, remembering Jesus’ words, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”” (Luke 7:47, ESV)
Turn-Around Tuesdays are designed to bring hope and help, insight and encouragement to those of us who are simply overwhelmed by the flood of problems life throws at us. No one is immune to trials and troubles, but God has a way of lifting us from life’s torrents. Each short thought is written by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith, Executive Director of Eagles In Leadership, and comes from his life-journey with the God who never leaves us or forsakes us. He welcomes your comments below.
