“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Highest; Call upon Me in the day of distress; I shall rescue you, and you will glorify Me.” Psalms 50:14-15 LSB https://bible.com/bible/3345/psa.50.14-15.LSB

Does the Lord seem distant? Is the influence of God and His ways appear to be a distant past rather than a current reality? What does God want from us so that He might draw near to us by pouring His presence upon us? The Lord despises whining but loves thanksgiving. We can be thankful even when we are poor; even in our suffering, we can find the good, the blessing, and the value of difficulty. Our thankfulness becomes a testimony when we press into the Lord through our difficulty awaiting His deliverance, His work in us, around us, and through us. This glorifies the Lord when we speak to men of what the Lord has done for us. But we must seek Him. We must fulfill our vows to Him. What is our vow? We prayed to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. This means we obligated ourselves to His kingship over our lives. We are committed to laboring for Him, representing Him before men, and seeking the salvation of all people to equip all people to obey everything He has commanded us. We are sorely lacking in fulfilling our vows. We are not believers only; we are committed adherents to Jesus and His way if we are indeed His disciples. In this context, this following of Jesus, doing His will, working to establish His kingdom upon the earth like that which is in heaven, that we encounter the difficulties for which we pray and give thanks for suffering as Jesus did. Great will be our reward, and frequent will be our interaction with the Most High God so that His praise rolls from our lips by our declaration of His goodness and love for His people.