Thank God for His provision, protection and preservation

Fri, Oct 26, 2012

Independence Message – by Bishop Sonny E. Williams – Presiding Bishop, Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies, St Vincent and the Grenadines District

We are grateful for another occasion to celebrate our National Independence. This is a golden opportunity to pause and reflect on our blessings, as well as to commit ourselves to making our nation productive and prosperous. Consequently, Independence Day for our future generations of Vincentians will be celebrated with even more reasons to express gratitude.{{more}}

It is imperative that we loudly celebrate our achievements and blessings, as silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. Someone has said “no duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”

So often we are perturbed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done. Even though we don’t have all we want, we are grateful for what we’ve escaped and what we have.

We are thankful to God for allowing us to live in this beautiful, peaceful country. We still have the freedom to worship at a church of our own, choosing every day or once a week, or not at all. We can still express our opinions in open for such as meetings, rallies, on radio and television and in newspapers. We still have the choice to own property and are free to move about the country. We still offer prayer in schools and public offices and the Bible is regarded as a divine book. We still regard the sanctity of marriage, that is a relationship between a man and a woman.

There are many more areas we can be thankful to God for. Psalm 13:1 reminds us to “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good”. Our blessings did not come from our parliament. They came and come from God alone. The Epistle of James is of this view: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of light” (James 1:17). Whatever we enjoy in life that is good genuinely comes from God.

Our founding fathers understood that perfectly when they enshrined in our constitution that our nation is founded on the belief of the supremacy of God. The writer of our national anthem captures this in line, “What e’re the future brings, our faith will see us through”.

We must always recognize and honour the source of our blessings. God’s warning to Israel is timely and apt. “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God” (Deut. 8:10-11).

President Abraham Lincoln reminded his people that God is the true source of blessing, nationally and individually. He stated, “It is the duty of nations, as well as men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God…. and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scripture and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord”.

The Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies, St Vincent and the Grenadines District salute the nation on its 33rd Anniversary of Independence and join the many in thanking God for His provision, protection and preservation over this nation.