O join me give thanks to God!
As has been my practise since 2005 when God gave me the command to do so, I organised a small but colourful thanksgiving gettogether here in my house in Abuja last Saturday. Friends, relatives, well wishers and others I considered suitable to hear the message were invited for the event. If I had any known enemies I would have invited them too so that the Biblical saying that God will set a table before me in the presence of my enemies would be fulfilled. But unfortunately I do not know of any ones who consider themselves my enemies.
And one aspect of my blessedness which I cherish enormously is that I happen to be one of very few persons on earth who do not have any persons they have sufficiently provoked or offended who then consider themselves our sworn enemies. I also consider it not a small blessing that the few hidden enemies I have God deals with them expeditiously before they have a chance to lay their wicked hands upon me and my family and he does not even let me know the battles he has fought and won on my behalf. So I live a life of absolute blessedness devoid of fear and apprehension.
As I said earlier, eight years ago God urged me to openly and publicly give him thanks for the blessings he loads me with each year. Since that time, I fixed January 10 of every New Year in order to say ‘’thank you’’ to God for the blessings of the out gone year. For convenience sake, I extended by one day the event of this year. Otherwise, I have been very faithful in observing that command on January 10 of each New Year. God opened my eyes to see that much of humanity is ungrateful for what He does for us. That is why so many people are filled with murmuring, grumbling and complaining (GMC) and that is why some people do not get blessed. GMC has become a lifestyle of many people and God is unhappy about this. He therefore commanded me to give him thanks to show the way to others. I am also to preach the message of thanksgiving to those who are willing to hear and do. And to you my reader out there, this message is for you. Learn to give thanks to God. We are taught that the first thing we should ever say when we wake up and are still lying on the is ‘’I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great. This is the prayer that the Jews call Modeh anee.
God desires that his creatures should worship him by also expressing thanks for the wondrous things he does for us. There is only one thing that God cannot do. And that one thing is that he cannot give thanks to himself. And that one thing he requires us to do for him. I think all the known religions of the world teach this message but very few believers take this to heart and do as they are taught.
In the Bible which I know so well, there are some verses which expressly tell us that if we fail to give God thanks he will destroy and not build us up. Psalm 28: 5 says: ‘’Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not build them up’’. Similarly, we are told in Malachi 2: 2: ‘’If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Since 2005 I have been careful to record the achievements I have made in various sectors of my life for each year so that I recount them at the thanksgiving event to attendees. As the song says count your blessings one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. That saying is true. When you consciously sit down to record and reflect on what God does for you you will be surprised that your situation is not as helpless as we think.
As I started keeping records, I have discovered that each succeeding year, I record more achievements than the year gone by. For the year 2013, I recorded 14 which, in figure and substance, surpassed those of 2012 which were 10. One of the highlights of the list of my successes for 2013 was that at long last I completed a house in my village which I started on January 16, 1991 with the sum of N1,600. That house is today what Nigerians call a befitting edifice fit for a governor, minister or even president to live in!
I also told my friends who were assembled that last year my household and I had no hospital case, no police case, no court case, no accident case and no armed robbery case. I know that this type of testimony can only be appreciated by those who are unfortunate to have been entangled in any of those five ‘cases’. If you are caught up in any of them, you will be financially drained. And what is worse, your peace of mind will be denied you and it will even subtract from the sum of your lifespan.
I have discovered that among Africans we Nigerians are about the most ungrateful set of human beings that God ever suffered to create and put on the surface of planet earth. You only need to listen to some Nigerians endlessly complaining about nearly everything to appreciate the depth of our ingratitude. The few times I ever go to ‘point and kill’’ fish suya joints in some of the well manicured gardens that dot Abuja, this is when I marvel most at our penchant for complaining instead of prostrating to thank God for our good fortune. You will see a man and his friend despatch a N3, 000 well seasoned and barbecued fish and proceed to wash it deep down with a bottle of criminally cold wine of about N2, 000 under a background of soothing music. When you espy what they are saying, in most cases than not, they are complaining about how things are not working and how things are so bad in Nigeria. ‘’Just go to small and nearby Ghana and see how perfect things are’’, one will say to his concurring friend.
Sometimes I am so outraged that I am tempted to rise up, go to them and ask: ‘’You this perpetually grumbling Nigerians, would you right now rather be in Central African Republic or South Sudan or even in Cairo, Egypt? When I hear some of my compatriots do their thing—complaining about everything under the Nigerian sun- I shake my head and say, ‘’Father, forgive them for they know not how much you have blessed them’’.
My dear friends, you have heard it now: God wants us to cultivate the habit of thanking him and not complaining about the things that are not working in our lives. I have been doing this for the past eight years and I have discovered the amazing mystery in carrying out this religious obligation. Since I learnt this secret my this year has always been better than my last year. My list of blessings for last year was 14. If you will come to keep count with me on January 10 next year, you will see that I will have a double portion. O, please, help me give thanks to God. It is good to give Him thanks.