September 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Do you stop and take the time to give thanks to the Lord for what He provides? Living in an affluent society puts us in danger of taking what we have for granted. Influenced by the attitude of adults, children grow up with a sense of entitlement, feeling they have a right to have whatever they want, when they want it. People are so preoccupied with their own pursuits they hardly have the time to sit down and give thanks.

Thanksgiving is vital to our lives because it is an act of faith. When we thank God for all we receive from Him, we acknowledge and confess that we are not our own but belong to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, as we offer thanks for such things as a place to live, food, marriage and family life, we confess them as gifts from heaven. Since they are gifts, we are merely stewards of them, charged with a responsibility to use them in the greater service of God. Everything must be received with gratitude. Nothing is to be “refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Tim 4:4, 5) To sanctify is to set apart for the Lord’s service. Receiving with thanksgiving all that the Lord gives, we place it in holy service.

All things are made holy through the Word of God and prayer. Everything you receive from the hand of God must be devoted to the Lord. To use the language of the prophecy of Zechariah, “In that day ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.” (Zechariah 14:20) Those who thank the Lord for His redemption in Christ dedicate their whole life and everything they possess to His service.

To continue living in thanksgiving is not easy. Daily we have to contend with our own sinful and selfish desires, but Christ’s work of redemption enables us to consecrate what we have for the service of the Lord. Receive with thanksgiving what God gives you, consecrating it by the Word of God and prayer. Testify to the world that you know the true meaning of thanksgiving by writing on yourselves and on all that you own, “Holy to the Lord.”