DELIBERATE

‘Serah, please pray for us’ that was the first thing my boss told me as we gathered to tackle a pretty tasking memo at the office. A Committee had been formed especially for this as we were to create something that was pretty new to most of us on the Committee. I had been dreading this Committee work for weeks.

I gave a fire branded prayer quickly asking for the help of the Holy Spirit who knows all things and is the best teacher and guide.

The work commenced and before you know it, we had made great achievements and were almost done with it. As it was already closing hour, we decided to reconvene the next day and conclude on all we had done.

I got home and was just pondering over the events of the day when I saw a replay of the day’s events starting from the meeting with my boss saying ‘Serah pray for us’. I watched everything as it happened and how we dispersed immediately after. I heard my prayer clearly asking for help but I didn’t hear myself or any other person go back to say ‘thank you Holy Spirit for the help you rendered us’, rather, it ended with a ‘see you tomorrow’.

Wow, how could we have been so rude by not going back to give thanks?

 I understood what the Holy Spirit was saying and quickly asked for his forgiveness on behalf of the whole team and said a proper ‘thank you, Holy Spirit’.

The next day, my boss was about to start the meeting with a ‘pray for us’ when I shared my encounter with the Holy Spirit. My boss was quiet and asked me about what time it happened because she has experienced the same thing at home and like myself, repented and asked for forgiveness on behalf of everyone and gave thanks.

The room was pretty silent when one of my colleagues who had been keenly following all that was happening made a key statement that caught my attention. She said ‘that means the Holy Spirit was bent on getting that thank you and was not going to relent on it because it was important to him’!

While sharing the day’s events with my best friend, we started talking about how easy it was for us to express profound gratitude to people who do things for us, but neglect to show that same level of gratitude to God when he does stuff for us. It is like somewhere at the back of our minds, we feel it is our right and entitlement. I can relate with that because while growing up, I felt the same sense of entitlement when it came to God. I got so upset if I asked for something that I felt was in accordance to his Words and knew He could do, but didn’t (read my frustrated article to get a feel).

Anyway, everything changed for me with the birth of my daughter Anaiah; where I learned to exchange that ‘entitlement and rights attitude’ for a ‘gratitude attitude’ (check my blog on gratitude attitude for full story).

Safe to say that after that encounter at the office, I began to be more deliberate about going back to say ‘thank you’ to the Holy Spirit whenever He did anything for me, especially when I came asking for help.

Through that experience, I learned that so often, it is easy for the human mind to forget the good things God has done; but the mind easily remembers the ‘seemingly bad’ things that happened. Perhaps that is why David said ‘let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me’ (Psalm 103:2). It is simply because he (David) knows that to remember ‘good’ is a very deliberate and difficult thing for the human mind.

I’ve met people who can give exact dates and detailed descriptions of situations that hurt them but couldn’t remember the good ones or the ones that brought them joy. Most times, it is people who are new in the faith (especially new converts) that remember or people who are deliberate to remember that come back and give thanks. Our feelings of entitlement, rights mentality, and fuzzy brains make us shock God and cause Him to ask questions like ‘didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no-one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner (Mark 17:17-28)?

The year may not have gone as expected but, I pray that you make a deliberate effort to sit down, think and just find a reason or reasons to give thanks. Just look around you and you will find a lot. The fact that you are still standing means there is still hope and God is not done with you yet. So end this year by giving deliberate thanks. As they say; ‘Count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’.