Spiritual Strength For Each Day
“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116:17-18).
We can see and experience the meaning of the words “sacrifice of thanksgiving,” when we make our way into the innermost sanctuary. The door of the sanctuary opens up to us when we give God thanks for His unspeakable gift, Jesus Christ; when we praise Him for His precious blood that He shed for us, and for His body that He gave for us. To go through the door of the sanctuary with praise and thanks, into the presence of the holy God, means to surrender yourself to Him who surrendered Himself for us through His blood and His body. Then we suddenly grasp the meaning of the words, “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” We have the tendency to separate things that in the sight of God are inseparable, because He joined them. But this is not possible. We cannot, for instance, be one with Jesus Christ and simultaneously live for ourselves. We cannot thank God without simultaneously sacrificing to Him. Whoever separates thanksgiving and sacrifice loses his joy in the Lord. “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High” (Psalm 50:14).
