Getting it right ...

Psalm 116:12-14 (NLT) What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD's name for saving me. 14 I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

When it comes down to it, most of us want to earn our way in the world. We get a job and work hard so that we can earn a good wage. We don't want handouts, but we like to earn our own keep. We don't mind getting a good bargain once in a while, but deep down, we are conditioned to earn what we can by our own determination and hard work.

I am convinced that this is why Grace is such a foreign concept to us. There's nothing wrong with earning a good wage, but we don't earn our gifts. We receive them joyfully and say "Thank you!" Think of birthdays. We don't earn birthday gifts by getting older. We just get older, and people give us gifts because they love us.

I remember what we used to say to the children when they were little. If someone did something nice for them, we would prompt their appropriate response by saying, "What do say, dear?" We teach our children gratitude and "Thank You" from the time they can speak, but as adults, we often forget the most important thank you's of all - those to God.

The Psalmist gets it right! Our thanks and praise (and even good things that we do for God and others) are appropriate responses to God's great gifts to us. We don't earn those gifts. God graciously bestows them on us. What we do for God in return should flow from our gratefulness for God's blessings to us.

Think of all of God's blessings in your life just this week. Name them off.

Now, "what do you say, dear?"