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Thanks

Thanks

The big picture: Now this is something to be thankful for. We are qualified. No doubt about it. God has done it for us. God has prepared an inheritance for us. God has adopted us into His family. God, and God alone, has qualified us to share in His riches.

God is in an amazing mood: Get this! He sent His Son, Yeshua [Jesus] the Messiah and it is now complete. There is nothing else for us to do qualify to be a child of God. God has done it all. It is finished.

What it’s all about: In my “work” and sometimes “family” life, I have to qualify myself. I have to prove myself. I have to demonstrate I can get it done. That is the way it works. That isn’t God’s way.

God’s world is different. It doesn’t make sense to us but it is reality. We can share in the inheritance that our Father is preparing for us and all the saints. He has done it. There is nothing we can do to make it happen ourselves.

Consider this: God is God. He does what He wants without our permission. He doesn’t ask us if it is okay with us. God knows what needs to be done. God does it.

That is some good news.

We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. | Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Col 1:9–14). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

I am so thankful to my Master Jesus, the Messiah. I want to shout. I sing about His greatness. I have gratitude in my heart for the amazing things He does.

Thankfulness is a prominent Bible theme. First Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in the Messiah Jesus.” Did you catch that? Give thanks in all circumstances. Thankfulness should be a way of life for us, naturally flowing from our hearts and mouths.

Digging into the Scriptures a little more deeply, we understand why we should be thankful and also how to have gratitude in different circumstances.

Psalm 136:1 says, “Give thanks to the Master, for he is good. His love endures forever.”

Here we have two reasons to be thankful: God’s constant goodness and His steadfast love. When we recognize the nature of our depravity and understand that, apart from God, there is only death, our natural response is to be grateful for the life He gives.

Thankfulness comes from knowledge that God is good. When we get that, we are always thankful.

  • Colossians 3:15–17 (CSB) — 15 And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of the Messiah dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Master Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
  • 2 Corinthians 9:15 (CSB) — 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
  • Luke 2:25–32 (CSB) — 25 There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Master’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, 29 Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace, as you promised. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation. 31 You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.
  • Luke 2:36–38 (CSB) — 36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and was a widow for eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. 38 At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
  • Colossians 2:6 (CSB) — 6 So then, just as you have received the Messiah Jesus as Master, continue to live in him,