No Words Can Express… Heartfelt Gratitude!
Revelation 7:9, 11-12 After these things I looked, and behold, a vast multitude that no one could count (definitely not alone in this… just sayin!) —from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues—was standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and all the angels were standing around the throne, along with the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
Yesterday I was called “spoiled”… and… I AM! I am showered with gifts (thoughts and things and bling) and blessings (grace and forgiveness and love) that I don’t deserve, I haven’t earned, and I couldn’t buy even if I had the funds to do so. I am loved… WELL!
I am loved so well that my heart sometimes swells to the point of pain – treasured pain.
I am spoiled by my God – I am spoiled by my lovey (husband) – I am spoiled by my children, my friends, my extended family… I AM SPOILED!
Normally this would have a negative connotation (i.e. rotten) but I choose to proudly wear it as a Badge of Wonderful, because with my badge I am boldly proclaiming my HEARTFELT GRATITUDE.
And soooo…
I was contemplating the word (words) of thanks/thanksgiving…
It seems to me that, like love, there are degrees of sincerity – the amount of covenant reciprocal investment embedded in the words thank you.
One can “like” something &/or someone and mean only that they have an affectionate response to… some Bible Dictionaries use the Greek word phileo. Or, we can “love”, placing a deliberate attachment for and a covenant promise to place and hold the person, place or thing in a position of honor. A place that includes use of and benefits from all my worldly goods… this greek word is agapaō… a word that describes a willingness to sacrifice to or for the loved one.
Thank you and/or all other verbiage used to express gratitude, can (and I believe does) express the same degrees sincerity/amount of covenant reciprocal investment.
I can (and often do) say thank you from my head not my heart. As a spoiled child, I still have the nature to make everything about ME, which in turn causes me to “like” anyone or anything that satisfies MY desires and or affections. Sorry to say, when my heart is filled with myself I can really only squeeze in a small space for covenant investment toward someone or something else.
But…
When the eyes of my heart look outward and SEE THE SPOILER, I can begin to prepare a place for him/her. A place of honor – a place of willingness to invest myself. A place that is not shallow pond of “liking what I see”, but a “deep, unending, growing realization of WHO I see. A place that inspires AWE of “Why me?” A place that is pressed down, shaken, full, and overflowing of GRATITUDE of the HEART!
A place that DEMANDS a little more than words of thanks.
To God, who is The Spoiler (my Spoiler) above every spoiler, the place in my heart demands… falling on my face before the throne and worshiping My God, saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to my God forever and ever!
To my other spoilers, who give from God’s provision (whether they know it or not) in their lives, my heart demands all except the worshipping. My heart demands an amen… me proclaiming the truth of you… with blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor… giving you the power and might to touch my life in ways that fill my heart with the essence of you.
This is HEARTFELT GRATITUDE which NO WORDS can adequately express!
When I am wearing my Badge of Wonderful called “Spoiled” and not adding “rotten” to it (eyes on me), I am being changed. God is… taking the heart of stone out of my flesh and giving me a heart flesh (Ezekiel 11:19)
I am spoiled!
Psalm 139:13-18 God formed my inward parts; God wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are God’s works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from God, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; God’s eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in God’s book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
How precious also are God’s thoughts to me, O God!… He gives me all my other spoilers… How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
To my Spoiler and all His fearfully and wonderfully made assistant spoilers He has put into my life, I place you in my heart with the deepest covenant reciprocal investment of thanks and love I can give!
1 Timothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
You are received with all of my HEARTFELT GRATITUDE!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.