As we tell the Lord, thank you a million times in our 1st Anniversary Celebrations, I know we can all relate in different ways. In my culture, if someone gave you a chicken, you were expected to go back with a chicken to say thank you in case the chicken gave rise to young ones. I know in every culture of the world there is a way of appreciation in reciprocation of a positive gesture.
God, our heavenly Father, is a giver and has no problem with blessing His people. In fact, God is honored when we are blessed. But many people think that before God gives something he has to be bribed or tricked in a way and that’s why most people after they got what they wanted quit trusting God leave a lone thanking Him.
To be more precise, the problem is not whether God is willing to bless His people or not, but the problem is how we react after we get the blessings. Are we willing to go back to Him in thanksgiving? Can we truly honor Him with the blessings and keep on loving Him more than before the blessings?
ONLY 10% OF PEOPLE REMEMBER TO THANK GOD
If we can look at Luke 17:11-19, in this story, Jesus met ten leprous men who were quarantined outside the city gate. These men in their desperate situation called upon Jesus for help who in turn told them to go and show themselves to the priests. On their way to the priests, the miracle happened, and they were instantly healed. The bible says that the miracle happened on the way, so they had not even met the priests.
Verse 15, one of them on seeing that he was healed came back praising God in a loud voice. The amusing part of the story is that this man was a Samaritan, not a Jew. I strongly feel that this one man out of ten represents the 10% of people who remember to give thanks out of 100% who ask God for blessings. I like the way he demonstrated his thankfulness – by throwing himself down at the feet of Jesus.
The Lord asked him, where not ten people healed, where are the other nine? This question means that Jesus was definitely expecting that these ten men would remember to come back for appreciation. Jesus then sent the one man away with these important words, “rise and go, your faith has made you whole.”
According to these words, it means that the one who remembered to give thanks received something more than the others. His wasted body skin, organs or parts were restored back to the original state. This is therefore is the mystery with thanksgiving, it brings about divine restoration.
WHY 90% OF PEOPLE DON’T GIVE THANKS
While still taking this story in Luke 17:11-19 into account, we learn the following points: –
- The nine men were Jews: – Why is this an issue? Jesus being a Jew at one instance, he told the Canaanite woman that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel and so you can’t take children’s bread and toss it to dogs (Matthew 15:24-28). According to this statement, it means that healing or deliverance was for the Jews and not for other nations of the world.
If this was the case therefore, you can easily understand the feeling of the nine guys (assuming they were Jews) who never returned to give thanks. They would have likely felt that they didn’t have to return to give thanks because they deserved.
Many people like the nine men, after getting blessed, feel that it was their right so they don’t bother to come back for thanksgiving. The one man who came back was Samaritan, when he compared himself with others, he must felt that he didn’t deserve this healing like others.
2. The nine men focused on the healing more than on the healer: – I’m, imagining that these men were staying outside the city gates waiting for their death date, they had no hope remaining. Their family members had done away with them because leprosy was considered a dangerous infectious disease which was associated with uncleanliness and would eventually lead to death.
For someone to get healed, after he had given up with life would be the most exciting experience and would easily drive someone crazy in thinking about how to get reintegrated back to the society.
Am just imagining that these men after healing got a new commitment of seeking to be accepted back by their wives, children, parents, siblings, etc., so the idea of going back to thank God would not be a priority.
3. Concentrating with the next move instead of thanksgiving first: – Leprous people were not accepted in the society so this exposed the victims to a serious issues like loneliness, depression, rejection, eventually to death.
In such a situation, after healing one would become busy strategizing about the next step on how to fix the mess and get assimilated back again to the family.
In the same way, we don’t want to fall in the same trap as the nine men such that when God answers our prayers, we won’t remember to thank Him because of taking things for granted, focus on our achievements or prioritize our next move in life rather than thanking God.
REASONS FOR THANKING GOD – IN OUR 1ST ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
As we tell the Lord thank you a million times, the GAM fraternity feel indebted to thank God so much for the many things He has done in our lives. Indeed, the Lord’s faithfulness and presence was so evident in our 1st Annual Anniversary celebrations which was held on 3rd May 2022.
REASONS TO THANK GOD
The 1st Anniversary Celebration was preceded by the 21 days prayer and fasting, which became a big source of strength and stamina to us. The prayer and fasting was segmented into 7-7-7 i.e. first seven days of Praise and Thanksgiving, second seven days of Repentance and finally 7 days of Pursuing, Overtaking and Restoration.
1. Planning And Execution
On the 3rd, the anniversary day was a great day of the Lord’s manifestation. First, in our service, we saw the hand of the Lord, in the way everything was organized. Our leader John Paul was used mightily by the Lord and miraculously managed to put everything in place (from church decoration to organizing the catering services)
I have been in other ministries before and when it comes to planning and execution, you find that there is no harmony and at the end of the day somethings don’t go as planned. For us, elder John Paul was given diving strength and wisdom in coordination, and everything happened perfectly. We give God the glory.
2. The Service
I was a little puzzled on what will happen because one of our key leaders in charge of the technical department had flown home for his annual leave. Though he had trained a successor to represent him while away, we were not sure if the successor would undertake the task amicably.
As we were starting our service, this successor was unable to finalize the settings on the laptop and so since the time was almost up, he thought of consulting a friend about it. This friend, Alex, was willing to help and we were not only amazed by how he participated but also how he blended so well.
The most amazing part about is the presence of God which was highly evident in the service. The Lord used brother Samson in leading the worship time and indeed the Lord was with us. I shared the word of God about “THE MAJOR MISTAKES AFTER VICTORY.” You can click to view the video below.
3. The Celebration
This was the climax of the day and everyone was anxious about it. Personally, my heart was excited about the goodness of the Lord for the whole year. John Paul led in the reading the history on my behalf as I led in thanksgiving prayers. I just felt the tender touch of the Lord in every step that we took.
After service, both John Paul and Samson went to bring the meals which was already prepared by sister Caroline, Jackline, Mercy and their team. The rest we remained behind to receive guests who had already started checking in. By the time brother Samson and John Paul were coming back, the house was already packed with guests.
At our amazement, the food seemed little compared to the guests invited but as it was served, everyone had enough till many of them carried an extra share for their friends. I understood the mystery behind Jesus feeding the five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish. It’s as if the more people ate, more share was being added because it was not depleting. Eventually we had enough surplus for all of us even after guests had left.
The Climax
After the meals, we had the most awaited moment of introductions and sharing the word of God. We started with introductions, each person was given an opportunity to introduce themselves and say a little about how the day was according to them.
We heard all sorts of amazing comments and stories among them: “I’m so blessed, to be here today.”, “You guys are amazing you have truly demonstrated love to us.”, “I’ve never seen this before since I came here.” “This is truly the right place to be.”, among many more.
CONCLUSION
We cannot record everything that happened on this day, however, this is just recorded to show you that the day was a great success not because of the many people but because the presence of the Lord was with us. Now I know that it is not because of the swiftness of the horse one wins the race nor is it due to the greatness of the army the battle is won but the battle and victory belongs to the Lord. To Him we give all the honor and glory, to Him alone we shall press on and render our sacrificial service.
