LIVING, DEAD, OR DYING?

LIVING, DEAD, OR DYING?

Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10
Memory verse:
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭150‬:‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It takes a living soul to sense God’s presence and goodness in his or her life. Just like a dead body can’t feel anything around anymore. The body is just lying down, and cannot thank you for the expensive casket you have placed him, nor for all classes of people that attended his funeral. Benefits were only appreciated during his lifetime. It is the lifetime benefits that cause thanksgiving and not the befitting funeral!
So it is with those who don’t praise God. Hear what King Hezekiah said after God had healed him and prolonged his years.
“For the dead cannot praise you; they can not raise their voices in praise. …Only the living can praise you as I do today.” ‭‭(Isa 38‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭NLT‬‬).
The MSG puts it like this:
“The dead don’t thank you, and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue. …. It’s the living – live men, live women – who thank you, just as I’m doing right now… “
Let’s get what the scripture is saying here. Firstly, it is not that the dead don’t want to thank God but that they don’t just have the ability to thank Him. They just can’t! They are physically alive but spiritually dead (Eph 2:1). Such cannot feel anything about God or what He is doing. Your disinterest in the praise of God may just be an indication of your true spiritual state.
Even when they appear to be praising God, they make only unpleasant noises to His ears. Praise is a spiritual sacrifice. Only the praise that flows from the heart that has been redeemed from sin through Christ’s sacrifice can offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5, 9).
What about you? Are you offering spiritual sacrifices or making unpleasant noise to God?
Secondly, that scripture says the dead can’t raise their voices to thank God. In other words, even if they have the ability to praise God, they can’t raise up their voices in praise. They are losing their spiritual life. These are believers who mutter praise to God. They are not quiet by nature. They can raise up their voices when they are discussing politics, sports, entertainment, job related, or trending issues but mute during praise. They stand unmoved, no matter how inspiring the praise is.
Friends, in the mortuary, peoples’ voices seize, but in the sanctuary, voices are raised! Only the living have the ability to praise God and can raise up their voices in praise. Which are you – dead, living, or dying living?

Prayer points
1. Father, thank You for making me alive in Christ and to sense Your goodness all around me.
2. Write down at least ten things to thank God for in the year 2023 and then give Him quality praise.

Today’s declarations
1. I can sense God’s goodness in my life and in everything because I am spiritually alive.
2. As long as I am in the Sanctuary and not in the mortuary, I will never offer silent praise to God.

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng