Ephesians 1:3
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
For many years, when my husband and I hosted our family’s Thanksgiving dinner, it was our tradition to go around the table to give each individual an opportunity to express what they were most thankful for from the previous year. Invariably, the thanks and praises to the Lord would be in regards to family: help during a health crisis, grace in grieving the death of a family member, provision for finances, a new job, a new house, a long-prayed-for spouse. These are all very good things and were definitely answers to prayer and worthy of our thanks to God. But what if this Thanksgiving we focused less on the tangible or material ways God has blessed us but rather on the “spiritual” blessings that God has given? These last 19 days in this season of thanksgiving, most of our focus has been on exactly that —the ways God offers blessings and provision for our spiritual needs and growth rather than our material needs. With that in mind, as we gather together this week, I pray our hearts will be more inclined to offer thanksgiving for the following:
• He chose us from the beginning to be His.
• He offers His gift of salvation that comes by grace through faith in Christ.
• He adopts us into His family and, as His children, He gives us the right to call Him Father.
• He promises forgiveness of sin that separates us from a Holy God.
• He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us at the moment of conversion and seals us forever in Christ.
• He gives us insight and wisdom through His Word into the mystery of His will so that we can live our lives to glorify Him.
Wherever we gather this year for Thanksgiving—with family, friends, at home, or far away—let our words of thanks and our sacrifice of praise be lifted up to the God Who gave.
May the words of The Doxology, written by Thomas Ken in 1674, be our prayer for today:
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
