Devotion 16 April 2026

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him … overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2: 6-7

READING: Psalm 116

The psalmist began his song with the most simple expression of grateful love. He had a great love for Yahweh because He answered prayer in a desperate season (v1).

Then the psalmist expresses a feeling we often have when faced with offering our gratitude and love to God – “What shall I give to the Lord, For all His benefits toward me?”(v12)

And the answer is “I will take up the cup of salvation”(v13). Gratitude drives us to receive from God. Before we can do anything for Him, we begin by gratefully receiving.

This is an interesting and profound insight: The only way we can repay God, from whom everything comes, is by taking even more from him.

John Wesley wrote in this hymn:

What shall I render to my God

For all His mercy’s store?

I’ll take the gifts He hath bestowed,

And humbly ask for more.

However, we must not forget the rest of that verse 13; “I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” The very partaking of the cup of salvation is in itself a pledge of loyalty; it is the oath of allegiance in which he calls upon the Name of Jehovah. In verse 14 the psalmist says “I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”

But what does this mean in our lives today? We can do this figuratively at the communion table, we can also do it spiritually every time we acknowledge before God the blessing of his covenant with us, when we by faith receive him into our inmost lives.

So Wesley’s hymn continues

My vows I will to His great name

Before His people pay,

And all I have, and all I am,

Upon His altar lay.

He calls us to be part of the great thanksgiving of his kingdom’s people. To witness and worship with joy with those in his church.

Prayer

Almighty God and Father, I am filled with gratitude for all that you provide for me. I offer all that I am and all that I have, to you, and continue to gratefully receive your grace, love and peace into my life. Amen