Topic: Not An Ingrate
Text: Mark 5:25-34

Today is Nigeria’s Independence Day anniversary. As we mark the 41st year of Africa’s most populous country, we should give thanks unto God for freedom and its benefits. For more than four decades now, we have used the word ‘freedom’ without thinking of the connotative meaning of it. What do you understand by the word ‘free’? God has freely given us many things. The most essential commodity, the air that we breathe, is free. Thank God for this. The sun and the rain are free.

In Matthew 5:45, the Bible says: “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Our daily bread is also free. You may not believe this.

In the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, the bread we are to ask for is our own 9Luke 11:3). Gifts from God are free. Jesus Christ is free. In John 3:16, the Bible tells us that God gave us His only begotten Son. He did not loan Him to us. Salvation is free. The blood that cleanses from all sins is free. The Holy Spirit is free. In John 14:16, Jesus Christ said: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” Divine healing is also free. All the major blessings of God are free. The only thing He wants in return is praise.

If only you know how to praise God, you can get anything from Him. If you thank Him for what He had done in the past, He will do more. Many of those who got miracles from Jesus Christ had one thin in common: they knew how to worship Him. They included the leper, in Matthew 8:1-3; the woman with the issue of blood, in Mark 5:25-34; Jairus, in Mark 5:22-24 and the woman whose daughter was tormented by demons, in Matthew 15:22-28. The greatest example is in Mark 5:1-13, the story of a man with more than a thousand demons in him. He had enough sense in him to know that he had to worship God. God is a Spirit and those who will worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth.

Until you become born-again, you are flesh. Jesus Christ said He that is born of the flesh is flesh. When you are born of the Spirit, you are spirit. If you are born-again, you will worship God acceptable. As we celebrate freedom today have you reflected on what God has freely given us?

Memory Verse: Psalms 105:1 - “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name make, known his deeds among the peoples!.”