Reflection: The overflow

Thanks is the most transcendent form and expression of thought, said GK Chesterton.*

Do you agree?

David, shepherd/poet/king, gets that.

In praise, he wells up and veritably spills with joy and wonder: Bless the LORD, O my soul!

• It’s reverent gratitude stirred in every body part and oozing from every pore.
• Its object is the LORD my God—

the God, transcendent;

my God, intimate.

• And it’s time and again (e.g. see Psalm 103,104,145), for our reflective benefit.

Savour the above three psalms today (maybe over three meals).

Let them stir you to your core and spill in the overflow of saying grace again, and again, and again.

As John Wesley wrote, “Amidst this universal jubilee of nature, do not allow, I ask you, the sons of men to be silent; but let the noblest work of your creation [offer] you the noblest sacrifice of praise. Pour your grace into my heart, so that I may worthily magnify your great and glorious name. You have made me and sent me into the world to do your work. Assist me to fulfill the end of my creation, and to show forth your praise with all diligence, by giving myself up to your service. ‘Prosper the work of my hands upon me,’ O Lord; prosper whatever I shall undertake this day, that it may tend to your glory, the good of my neighbour, and the salvation of my own soul.”

Watch these 3 minutes from a Chinese imprisoned pastor (from minute 41-44) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pu9MezB4JQ

Prayer:

Give thanks with a grateful heart
give thanks to the Holy One
give thanks because he’s given
Jesus Christ, his Son

And now let the weak say, ‘I am strong’

Let the poor say, Í am rich

because of what the Lord has done…’          (‘Give Thanks’, a song by Henry Smith)

* “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder,” GK Chesterton