YOUR TOAST TO THE LORD

MONDAY 17 JANUARY 2022

When God has showered you with untold blessings, it is required of you to respond well to His goodness. We cannot expect more from God when we are stingy with our gratitude. And how delightful and advantageous it is to have the fullness of His blessings followed by the most stupendous heart of gratitude.

Reference: Psalm 116:13 New International Version (NIV) '"What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me?" I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.'

Here, I'll lift high the "cup of salvation" means offering a toast of thanks to God and also praying in His name. To put it simply, this cup of salvation denotes making an offering of thanks and blessings in the presence of God. It's like mentioning the list of all His blessings and benefits of His salvation you're experiencing, presenting it before Him heavenward.

So concerning what God has done for him, the Psalmist spoke about it liberally and bountifully; and also concerning what he expected to do as a response to God's goodness, he also spoke about it confidently and publicly. Likewise, we're bound by grace to minister to the Lord with the cup of salvation. Kindly pause and think about the wonderful and glorious effects responding to God's goodness can produce in our Christian life, especially when we engage the power of the Spirit!

Now here's the question: How often do you testify of God's goodness upon your life on innumerable instances, let alone responding to it? Psalm 68:19 says, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!"(NKJV). Beloved, it is God who has been making your life's journey prosperous and loading you with daily benefits; it is not the devil. However, our response to His faithfulness in our lives is not limited to praise and thanksgiving, we can also lift up the cup of salvation by extending the same goodness and grace to others.

For instance, by sowing the seed of the Word to the lost, leading them to Christ and planting them in the right church environment, we are lifting up the cup of salvation. The salvation of sinners is one of our greatest response to God's goodness because their conversion is important to God. The Bible says, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:7 ESV).

We can also lift up the cup of salvation by building up and edifying other saints with the grace we've received in Christ Jesus. In other words, we can exercise and extend the abundance of grace upon our lives to fellow Christians by building them with the Word of God's grace. In Pauline's farewell to the Ephesians, he said, "And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified" (Acts 20:32 ESV).

We can also lift up the cup of salvation by our performance of good works to others in need and also our liberality to the saints. When we lift the cup of salvation through these various means, it multiplies the fruit of our spiritual progress and positions us to abound even more in good works. 2 Corinthians 9:8 (ESV) reads, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." That means, as God generously provides all you need, you will always have every supply to your need and then respond to His goodness with plenty left over to share with others. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Exodus 2:15; 1 Chronicles 16:34; Luke 1:46-55; 1 Corinthians 1:4.

Guided Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, each moment I reminisce about all your goodness towards me, it serves as an opportunity to express my gratitude to you and lift up the cup of salvation as a toast to your supreme majesty and royal splendour. For this reason, I'm constantly bearing fruit of righteousness and increasing in harvest of generosity. Thank you for your loving kindness and the fruit of the Spirit evident in every aspect of my life in Jesus' Name, Amen!