Today is Thanksgiving Day, a day of reflection on the many blessings we have and a day to offer our humble thanks for those blessings to God, our loving Father. In Ephesians 1-2, Paul reminds us of some of those wonderful blessings and encourages us to have a heart of gratitude as we offer up praise to God.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (1:3)
How did He bless us? “ IN Christ”.
Christ is the reason we have acceptance in God’s eyes. And having Christ grants us the Grand Prize Package so to speak because “in Christ” we get it “ALL”- “every” spiritual blessing is ours!
Just think about how much God extended to you.
God loved you before the beginning of time. He knew long before you were born that you would need a Savior and he sent Christ to make you worthy of a status change.
“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (1:4-5)
How amazing is that! You are adopted into God’s family. But there’s more. God chose to lavish us with His grace. Lavish means “to bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities upon.”
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight”(1:7-8)
Paul talks about how the first believers, like himself, were given an inheritance by believing in Christ. But, this extended beyond the chosen Jewish nation to ALL people who would choose to believe. That includes you. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (1:13-14 )
The Holy Spirit teaches you, comforts you, and empowers you. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (1 Corinthians 3:16) What a blessed gift you have been given to have the Holy Spirit, with you always.
Life is the most important of blessings. I’ve heard this quote recently “Jesus Christ did not come to make bad people good but to make dead people alive. “. You should be grateful for your physical life, certainly, but what far exceeds physical life is Eternal Life! Because of Christ, you have the greatest blessing of all.”
Paul reminds us that we were spiritually dead. “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (2:2-3)
But, Praise God, we were given New Life....eternal life!
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—” ( 2:4-5)
Paul reminds us this is “a gift of love”. You don’t deserve it. You don’t earn it. You don’t perform to keep it. It is a freely offered gift of love and grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”(2:8-9)
What a great gift to be thankful for. Part of our thankfulness should be to allow God to extend what He has blessed us with in service to others. God wants to use our lives to glorify and honour Him. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (2:10)
Today is a great day to show our thankfulness and appreciation for what God has blessed us with but every day affords the same opportunity. Thanksgiving shouldn’t just be a day but a way of life!