TREASURES FROM GOD'S WORD: Week of December 2-8, 2024, How will we repay Jehovah?, Prepared Speech.

TREASURES FROM GOD'S WORD: December 2-8, 2024, How Will We Repay Jehovah? Prepared Speech.

How will we repay Jehovah? (10 mins.)

In the Gospel of Luke 17:19, we find the account that, on one occasion, Jesus entered a village and found 10 men who suffered from the terrible disease of leprosy. They asked Jesus to heal them, and these ten men recovered their health.

The interesting thing is that this story says that all ten were healed, but only one returned to thank Jesus by falling at his feet. What happened to the other nine? They were ungrateful. All they were interested in was being healed and nothing else. What a lack of gratitude. This lack of gratitude is very common today. Adam and Eve were among the first ungrateful people toward Jehovah.

The Spanish dictionary of usage by María Moliner defines gratitude as the feeling of someone who receives a favor, which consists of appreciating it and feeling obliged to reciprocate to the person who has done it. And that is what we are going to talk about in this section of Treasures of the Bible, with the topic: How will we repay Jehovah?

And if we apply what this dictionary said in relation to Jehovah, it means that feelings should not be turned on or off at will, they have to arise spontaneously from within the person. Gratitude is not simply having good manners or following a protocol, it is born in the heart, it is the part of human feeling, of the person who is truly grateful.

And according to the Bible, many of our feelings have their origin in what we think. A doctor once said: “You cannot have a feeling of emotion without first having experienced a thought.” And what emotions have we received from Jehovah? What changes in our lives? Let’s review what the psalmist said here in Psalm 116:6-8. 

LET'S READ PSALM 116:6-8.  

The Lord protects the inexperienced. I was in ruins, and he saved me. 7 Let my soul rest once more, for the Lord has dealt kindly with me.

8 You have saved me from death; you have saved my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

Here are some demonstrations of Jehovah's love for us and the effect it has had on our lives, even literally, as verse eight says, he has saved some from death.

And this has been thanks to the fact that with his word he has helped us to change our way of living, a way of living that in passions could have led to our actual death, perhaps in the use of drugs, in practicing crime, delinquency, things that really would have led to someone's death.

That is one way Jehovah protects us, how He has treated us with kindness and how He saves us. And what can we say about what He has done over time, even though He did not know us, even though He did not exist? Like giving His only begotten Son to forgive our sins.

So there we have the thought, the action. Now we must show emotion, gratitude to Jehovah. Unfortunately, many of humanity, although we receive so many kindnesses from God and some recognize it, nevertheless, their way of acting is like these nine lepers, who received the benefit from Jesus, but did not show gratitude for what he did for them.Books of Jehovah

It is as we see here in the image of our activities guide, in the left section where there are those two circles, what people do despite having received so many good things from God, because they dedicate themselves to normal pleasures to spend a day, wasting time.

Sometimes it is simply senseless to sit in front of a television and watch something that may not benefit you much, to waste your life, it is really not bad to do it from time to time we can do and get benefits or recreate ourselves in something useful, but some senselessly waste their life in front of an electronic device that does not produce greater happiness or simply waste something as valuable as time, or maybe some simply want to give themselves the good life, the good luxury of simply enjoying their life. 

But for how long? It is like being ungrateful for not using time in a better way. And this is where this text from Psalm 116 and verse 12 comes in and makes us reflect:

LET'S READ PSALM 116:12.

How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done for me?

The answer is found in verse 14 of the same Psalm 116. 

LET'S READ PSALM 116:14.

The vows I made to the Lord I will fulfill in the presence of all his people.Books of Jehovah

We do not want to be ungrateful like these nine lepers who, once they were healed, said, well, this is what this powerful man had to do, and they left. We do not want to be like that, we want to reciprocate, to feel that emotion towards Jehovah in gratitude for what he has done for us.

And that is how King David felt when he said that he wanted to pay his vows to Jehovah. He had made a solemn promise to Jehovah, and he felt obliged to reciprocate. How can we imitate David? How will we repay Jehovah for all that he has done for us? It is true that we will never be able to repay Jehovah for all that he has done for each one of us, but we can rejoice his heart if we strive with all our souls to serve him.

We can imitate the example of the leper who returned to lay at the feet of Jesus in gratitude for what he had done, and that was that his life had changed, he had become a normal person, for that time, he did not have to go around hiding or perhaps simply waiting for death or the contempt of people.

We also want to show Jehovah that we want to be thankful for what he has done for us. How? In Psalm 116 and verse 17 it says: 

LET'S READ PSALM 116:17.

I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving; I will call upon the name of the LORD.

In the story we talked about about the 10 lepers, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. That's what they did, but one of them saw that they had to do something else, like returning to Jesus to thank him.

It was voluntary, while the other nine were simply going through a formality to indicate that they were healthy. This teaches us that we do want to thank Jehovah, not just as a mere commitment, but as a true emotion, a feeling of gratitude.

And that is why we see again in the image of the activity guide, this time what appears on the right side are two brothers who voluntarily in gratitude to Jehovah, instead of wasting their time for their own benefit, they do it to serve Jehovah as in public preaching to improve their understanding of the Bible, to think as Jehovah thinks and to thank him by having good conduct complying with his laws.

There are two ways to act. One is to simply thank God for what He gives us, but to benefit completely in our lives, or to serve Jehovah with true feeling, with emotion, for all He has done for us. A good question for everyone: How will we repay Jehovah?

We must analyze our lives according to our circumstances, according to our age, all of that will influence whether what we do is with all our heart, with the best quality of gratitude to Jehovah, such a loving God and to his son Jesus Christ as well.