Thank God it's Saturday ...

Actually I thank God everyday - for everyday - for everything. I have learnt that a thankful heart finds favour with God. Psalm 92:1-2 says,"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, Oh Most High. To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night".

Thankfulness is the beginning of Holiness. When we can truly thank God for everything - every situation - that we encounter in our lives, we will start to become more holy, because we will become more like Jesus Christ. Jesus was continually THANKING God (the Father) for everything because He knew the secret of giving thanks to His Heavenly Father. As we learn this lesson, heaven's doors will open over our lives, and we will be so blessed in everything we do that our hearts will want to praise Him even more.

This may seem like a different kind of post, but I have become so aware just lately that very few Christians are thankful for what God has done for them. Most Christians I have heard talking lately seem to have a very ungrateful heart. They are always striving for something, and have missed the truth that it is when we accept what God has done for us, and what He has given us, that He will open heavens doors to pour out a blessing so great that we cannot contain it!

I am overwhelmed lately at what God is doing in our business, and our personal lives! A day does not go past when we don't see His marvellous supernatural intervention and provision in our lives. I remember a particular Friday night about 3 years ago at Perth Christian Life Centre. We were only days away from losing everything we had (the bank had issued us with a notice of intent to take possession of our house and business premises), and I was crying out to God in anguish (I seem to recall spending a reasonable amount of time face down on the carpet crying out to God) about what was going to happen to our business. He answered me with an audible voice (I was always taught that he didn't do that anymore), and His words were simply ... "Stephen, I will build a business for you that will be beyond your imagination. But I will build it!"

Three years on He has kept His promise - in fact He started keeping it the next day after He gave it to me. He wiped out hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and has grown our business way beyond our wildest imagination or dreams. There has been no special business plan (accountants eat your hearts out), or slick business style, or advertising - simply hours of prayer, thanksgiving, honesty in dealings, and an unshakeable faith in a God who CAN and DOES keep His promises. Hours worked have halved, my quality of life has returned (He promises to restore everything that the locust has eaten), and I now love my job. Our business turnover has quadrupled in the past year, and we are debt free!!! Only God can do this kind of miracle - I just had to learn to co-operate with God, and to seek His face at every step.

The words of this beautiful old hymn says so eloquently what my heart feels ...

"My hope is built on nothing less,
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne."

I decided to share this personal account of how God intervened in my life because I am sure that there are people who may read this blog that need to be encouraged to trust in "His unfailing and unchanging grace".

"If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face ..."

Blessed be the Name of the Lord God Almighty!