By Creation and by Choice

TEXT: PSALM 116:10-19

KEY VERSE: “I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116:14).

The prophet Jonah had to put up with an avoidable stay in the bosom of a big fish. He could have escaped this if he had paid his vows to God earlier. It was an insight that dawned on him as the great sea creature tossed him to and fro. What are your vows too? Is it not total devotion to God and His cause for the great salvation He brought to us through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

What can the pardoned sinner render unto God in exchange for His goodness? Or, what can those who have been delivered from trouble or distress give in appreciation for God’s magnanimity? The best gift we can offer God is unreserved submission and devotion of ourselves and all that we have to His service.

The Psalmist said, in his own case: “I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.” He said he would take up the cup of consolation, the benefit God bestowed unto him and taste of His love in them.

We have numerous causes for which to praise God and to give up ourselves unto Him. We are His own by creation and by redemption. We equally belong to Him by His manifold investments and endowments in our lives. And we need to rightly recognise ourselves as His servants indeed. How wonderful to give birth to children and to raise them in godly homes! If God has mercifully loosened our bonds, we are thus twofold servants of His, for we cannot afford to use our new-found liberty to serve an enemy to our new Master and Redeemer.

We should follow the Psalmist’s example, who willingly offered to God without being ashamed of anyone, and without boasting about it. Such are the true saints of God, in whose lives and deaths He will be glorified.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Render sacrificial service to God.