Thank You, Jesus

The other day, at work, I emailed a gentleman with instructions on how to do something work related.  This person's name was Jesus.  (Not Gee-Zus, but Hey-Zues, the Hispanic way of saying Jesus)  I received his reply to my email on my blackberry.  Now, those of you that have one know that you don't see the whole email as you would on your computer.  You only see a portion of it until you scroll down.  Anyway, his reply simply stated:

Thank You,
Jesus

Now I've been talking to this person for quite some time, and I never thought anything of it.  But that day was different.  It got me thinking....

Does Jesus thank us?  Does God ever give us thanks?

He does all the time, through blessings....but the thing is, do we earn it?  In Matthew 19:22, the young rich ruler left because he didn't want to give up his possessions to follow Jesus.

See following Jesus unconditionally is what enables us to receive true blessings.  We need to devote ourselves to Him without worry about our possessions or what others will think. 

Unfortunately, we have a tendency not to want to give up our junk and follow Him.  We end up with the tendency of doing the same thing this rich young ruler does a few verses later in verse 22. "When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." (Matt 19:22 NIV)

This man wanted his "stuff" instead of following Christ.  Think about it.  Don't we do this at times?  Following Him is all about serving.  Joshua tells the Israelites in Joshua 24:14, "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!."

We not only need to serve the Lord, but we need to do it unconditionally!  The gods (notice the LITTLE "g") Joshua is talking about is all that junk that we've made into idols in our lives.

I understand serving Him is thanking Him, but we are so precious in the eyes of our God.  We need to take time in our prayers each and every day to allow God the time to thank us for what we have done for God today.  We need to sit in silence in our prayer time to allow ourselves to hear God thanking us for everything we do for God in this world.  You'd be surprised how much He thanks us.  We just need to listen.

Take time today and listen to Him.  Maybe He will send you and email that says:

Thank You,
Jesus

Nick Manzie