He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God. Psm 50:23
Hundreds of people began to disperse after an evangelistic festival in Red Hills, India. A woman stopped directly in my path and begged me to pray for her friend. She pointed to a cluster of chairs where a 20-year-old girl in a green sari sat alone. They explained she had polio as a child and was now lame. I cannot forget the sight of this daughter of Christ her legs braced ridged, eyes locked expectantly on me, and a smile of peace on her lips.
I laid a hand on her shawl-covered head to pray and was struck by the Christ-like beauty that radiated from this bent young woman. Because of her disability she had an opportunity to present a sacrifice of praise to God that I would never have. Her beaming countenance told me she was already living in thankfulness in spite of personal suffering. It was the most holy and true form of life worship. It felt Spirit prompted as I said to her, "In heaven the first will be last and the last will be first. When we go home forever you will be ahead of me because you have learned to praise God even while crippled. Don't ever stop praising Him." As we bowed my prayer was as much about confirmation that her heart was in exactly the right place as it was for healing.
I do not imagine I will see the girl again until heaven so I plan to tell her then how much she blessed me. The brief encounter gave me a role model for living a life of gratitude. My limbs are not paralyzed nevertheless I live in a cursed world and negative things come my way. I can turn each problem—from a rude store clerk to a cancerous lab report—into a sacrifice of thanks to God. It only requires a decision of the heart: I choose to let this stone of grief make me cling to the Spirit of Jesus. Instantly the rock pops into a Jewel in my heavenly treasure.
Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is a chute that carries me from a broken life on a cursed planet into a restored eternity in a perfect paradise. However it is the sacrifice of thanks that greases the salvation chute. If I can live as the girl in the green sari I will not slide into heaven, but fly.
Prayer: Mighty God, I give You thanks—in everything.
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