Being Thankful

When you are out and about in your daily life and you look at the lostness of the people around you and sense their spiritual darkness and see their spiritual blindness, it should cause you to be thankful for your own salvation.  You had nothing more to offer God than those lost in the darkness of their own sin; and, in fact, you were just as lost in the darkness of your own sin until the Lord shined the light of the gospel into your heart and the One who is the Light came and took up residence in your heart.  Your inner man was just as dead and lifeless without God and without hope, and without the spark of eternal life until the Holy Spirit moved upon you and you were born again to a living hope.

It is He, the One who has created all things and holds all things together, whose throne stands alone in the heavens, who has declared the end from the beginning who has called you with a holy calling and adopted you as his sons and daughters to be His heirs alongside His only begotten Son, and has given you His kingdom as your inheritance, that loves you who was as unlovable, rebellious, and just as much His enemy as those around you who are now His enemies.  It is He, the One who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, calls each star by name, and has formed your spirit within you and fashioned your heart....Yes, it is this very One who has loved you with the same love with which He loves His Son, who has placed you into Christ, raised you up from death with Him, has seated you in the heavenly places with Him, and who will pour out the riches of His grace upon you for all eternity.  This is the One who has lavished upon you all the lovingkindnesses of salvation while you were so undeserving.

Thinking about the greatness and wonder of our salvation, and understanding that the only thing that separates us from the myriads around us every day who are lost in their sins, is the love of God for us, should elicit the most profound thanksgiving from the very depths of our being.  Thank You Lord!  Thank You Lord! Thank You Lord! It is not enough, but all that we can say.  Let us enter into His courts with abundant praise, and His gates with joyous thanksgiving this Lord's day as we ponder anew the greatness and wonder of His saving us.