Repaying God for His Goodness to Us
When someone does something nice for us, we often feel compelled to pay them back in some way. Most often, we repay them by doing something nice for them. The same goes for receiving gifts. Once someone gives us a gift, we feel like we ought to reciprocate. This is just a great way to make sure we show people we appreciate their kindness to us. However, there are those situations where we receive such a blessing that it would be impossible for us to pay the giver back. The ultimate example of this would be trying to repay God for all of the things He has done for us. (Psalm 116:12) That is why the psalmist asked the question, "How can I repay the Lord for all the good He has done for me?" Of course, that is totally impossible, but there are some things we can and should do to show God we appreciate His goodness to us.
God's greatest gift to us is the gift of salvation, given to us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Jesus alone could die for us and provide salvation. We can't earn that salvation or do enough good works to cause God to give it to us. However, once we hear what Christ did for us, the least we can do is to turn from our sins, put our trust in Jesus as the Only One who could save us, and surrender to Him as Lord of our life. In this way we do not renounce the goodness of God toward us, but we gladly accept it. I believe that makes Jesus very happy and there is rejoicing in heaven over our decision. Then, of course we can show our love for the Lord and Jesus by praying with Him all of the time. He has blessed us with being able to pray to Him, so we need to take advantage of that privilege and talk with Him about everything. That shows Jesus we appreciate Him. Finally, we can submit to Jesus and serve Him in whatever He wants us to do for the Kingdom. After all, we owe Him our life, why would we not be willing to give ourselves to Him, as He gave Himself for us? Our service is a small way to show Jesus our love and thankfulness for His goodness to us.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 117-119.