April 25 – The Faith in Thanks (Psalm 50)

“He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.”
(Psalm 50:23)

IN WORD:
To most of us, giving thanks comes in the aftermath of a gift. We receive, and we are grateful to the giver if, in fact, we welcome the gift. It would be odd among sinful human beings to give thanks before a gift is given. Generosity can never be presumed among us. We must see it before we acknowledge it.
Negative as we are, we often treat God like a sinful human being. We will give Him thanks when we see His blessing. If we don’t see it, we withhold our gratitude. We base it on a false assumption about His character — that He might not be a Giver. Why? Because we haven’t seen it with our own eyes. But God doesn’t work that way. His character is constant. We can assume His generosity. He is a Giver by nature, and we can acknowledge Him as such right now, even before we think we’ve received His bounty. Not only is it appropriate to give Him thanks after a blessing, it is right to give Him thanks beforehand. And it is not only right, it is often a prerequisite. If we don’t, we may not receive what He is prepared to give.

IN DEED:
It is a strange dynamic to human eyes: Those who have never seen or expected God’s blessing will never receive it, while those who have will receive more. Does this seem unfair? It isn’t. Pessimism about God is faithlessness, and God does not honor faithlessness. He honors faith. Faith sees God for who He is before He has proven it yet again. It sees past blessings in the life of the believer, in the history of His servants, and in the Word of God. It knows that when God says He will deliver, He will. When He says He will provide, He will. Faith does not wait to find out who God is and what He is like. It already knows. It takes Him at His Word, and it is thankful in advance.

“He who can give thanks for little will always find he has enough.” -Anonymous-