“Give praise to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.” - 1 Chronicles 16:8
What has the Lord done for you? Do you even know? There are the obvious things that I will get into in a moment, but frankly, there are some things orchestrated by God that take place in our lives that we experience, never realizing His hand was in it. We are called to make His mighty deeds known far and wide. That doesn’t mean we are supposed to fly around the world extolling the virtues and deeds of our God any more than “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17) means we are to never, ever stop praying … as in 24/7, 365 days of the year without stopping. We are simply to testify of His mighty deeds and glorious mercy when called upon or when an opportunity presents itself. We are to lift up the name of Jesus continually and call on Him when necessary.
So let’s take a look at what God has done for us. He has made himself accessible to the masses by virtue of the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the Most Holy Place in the Temple being torn from top to bottom. This symbolizes the fact that God opened access to Himself for all people. No longer did they have to meet with God via the High Priest. The veil was “40 cubits (60 feet) long, and 20 (30 feet) wide, of the thickness of the palm of the hand”.* It reportedly took 300 priests to put it in place so no mortal man tore it in half; especially not top to bottom.
God allowed gentiles to be grafted into the family due to the Jews rejection of Christ (Romans 17:7). We can assume gentiles were the ones grafted in since it is said to Roman gentiles by Paul in his letter to them. So all had access to the forgiveness God freely gave. God provided a payment for our sins in the form of Jesus Christ, His only Son. Without acceptance of Christ there is no forgiveness and therefore we must pay for our sins ourselves, which we are unable to do. God also provides to those who have entered in: His grace, mercy, peace, joy, contentment, fulfillment, and so much more. Scripture says “eye has not seen, nor ear heard that which the Father has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
We have much to be grateful for. God has saved us and all He asks in return is our unflagging obedience and our unending praise. In the words of the old WHO classic: “I call that a bargain … the best I ever had.”
Walk with the King today and be a blessing!!
* Alfred Edersheim; The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah; Hendrickson Publishers; 1993.
