Charles George Missions Presents: Week 4 – Christmas Podcast – “Grateful for Jesus”
STEPHANIE: Hello and welcome to Episode 4 of our Christmas Podcast entitled, “Grateful, Grateful for Jesus.” I guess the title says it all Charles.
Charles: That’s right, Stephanie. We are going to discuss being grateful or thankful for Jesus during this season and every season in our lives. Our primary scripture is from Matthew 1:23 also found in Isaiah 7:14. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
The baby, who was born on what we celebrate as Christmas, came packed with so much love and hope that we have every reason to be excited and grateful to God for sending His Son. Jesus was called “Emmanuel” meaning “God With Us” and if God is with us, love is with us to overcome hate; hope is with us to defeat hopelessness; joy is with us to conquer despair; peace is with us to wipe out confusion; patience is with us to vanquish intolerance; goodness is with us to destroy evil; God’s spirit is with us and in us to annihilate anything and everything that is contrary to the will of God. So, we are grateful and able to conquer life’s challenges because God sent Jesus who is with us?
STEPHANIE: Yes, we are admonished throughout God’s Word to be grateful to God not only in good times but in times of trouble, testing, trial, tribulation and tumult. It certainly does no good not to thank Him. He is the only One who can really deliver us out of it all. God loves gratefulness, He loves for us to be thankful. Just as an earthly father loves his children to say, “Thank you, Daddy,” our heavenly Father loves it even more. The phrase, “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever,” is repeated at least six times in the Bible. (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalms 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, 118:29, and 136:1). We are to thank Him in the midst of life’s challenges be it a pandemic and all the problems associated with it because of what Romans 8:38‑39 says, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
CHARLES: That’s right. None of those things you listed can separate us from the love Jesus had for us when He chose to step down off His throne and come to this earth and die for us. None of it. We should not lift our problems above His love for us. Have you ever given your all to someone, been there for them through thick and thin, and then they abandon you? If you haven’t, keep living. It is a really bad feeling but you get over it because Jesus helps you get over it. Just think about how God feels when He has been there for us through thick and thin. When the going gets a little rough, we should thank Him for all that He has done for us instead of being ungrateful.
STEPHANIE: Wow! Being ungrateful is worse than being a traitor. That’s like being in a conspiracy with the devil. It gives God’s enemy, Satan, a lot of pleasure for us to be ungrateful and thankless. So, be grateful to God this Christmas season and every season of your life, for His Son, and all the good things the Son brought with Him to this earth. Charles, would you like to close today’s podcast with a few scriptures on thankfulness and our closing prayer?
CHARLES: Let’s start our prayer with, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
2 Corinthians 2:14, says, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”
And, Psalm 106:1, declares, “Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Prayer
CGM podcast listeners, please pray this prayer with us. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. We are grateful that you sent your beloved Son, Jesus, into this world. We refuse to be in conspiracy with Satan’s works which are destroyed by Jesus Who is with us by His Holy Spirit. We are persuaded that your eternal love is omnipresent and always with us daily. We give thanks to You for your loving gift to us, Jesus. Therefore, Dear God, continue to magnify Your Name in our lives through our Savior. Bring joy to this world with your angels on high. Amen.