Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving

About six years ago a family member lost his job. It wasn't a pretty experience and to make matters worse, these years have heaped rejection upon rejection at attempts to get full-time work. Even so, during these years God's love and care provided part-time hourly employment that enabled them to keep their home ... but it has been a long road of piecing together 3 to 4 jobs that translated into 10 to sometimes 14 hour days.

Then ... yesterday ... a promotion to full-time employment!

Praise be to God!

... was my immediate response. My heart spilled over with thanksgiving for God's answer to my prayer, their prayers over these last years. So, now I wonder what to offer as a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.

When God gave Moses the instructions for the sacrifices to be brought to the temple, the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving was one of them. (Leviticus 7) This sacrifice was to give thanks to God for his answer to a prayer, for his blessing bestowed. The one who prayed was to bring a sacrifice to the temple, and while the priests prepared the offering ... that one was to tell others, give testimony to what God had done. And, then they all feasted together from the sacrifice offered. This offering was praise to God ... an offering of pure praise.

I don't have to do this. I want to. I want to tell you of God's faithfulness and love and tender care for us ... how He provides for us. It isn't always in the way we want it or when we want it. But, when I choose to be present to the present of the Presence of God in my life ... the long road, the hard road, the rocky road, the windy road ... take me to a deeper road of faith in God's unfailing and loyal love for me, for you, for us.

If I were a poet, I would write a psalm. But, I'm not. So, as a sometimes blogger ... I blog in praise and thanksgiving.