What I'm Thankful For

By Justin Edwards

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I am thankful to my God and Savior Jesus Christ for pulling me out of the flames of hell, who granted me eternal life according to His own good purposes, for His own good pleasure, and according to the counsel of His own will, to the praise of His own glory. I am thankful for His enduring mercy, patience, and love toward a wretch like me. I am thankful that He removed the scales from my eyes, that He gave me a heart of flesh, and granted me repentance in March 2009. And I am thankful for the work He continues to do in me, conforming me to the Lord Jesus Christ, renewing my mind by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, and producing in me a joyful desire to present my body as a living sacrifice to Him.

I am thankful for the godly wife He has so blessed me. I am thankful to be able to watch her grow in her relationship with the Lord. I am thankful for her love for me, and especially her patience. I am thankful of her support in my God-pursuing endeavors, and I am thankful for her trust and expectation of me to be the godly leader of our home.

I am thankful for our two healthy children God has graced us with. I am thankful for the responsibility to raise them according to His ways.

I am thankful for the desire and the opportunities He has blessed me with to share the Good News with the lost.

I am thankful for the opportunities to love and serve as many as God lays before me.

I am thankful for my dear brothers and sisters in Christ who challenge me, encourage me, exhort me, admonish me, love me, and influence me to pursue a holy life.

I am thankful for my church to which God has led us. I am thankful for our God-exalting choir and orchestra, the leaders over the many ministries, the church's passion for Jesus Christ and to make His name known around the world, and I am thankful for our shepherd, Loran Livingston, who God appointed to lead this flock who does not compromise the truth and stands firm on the whole counsel of Almighty God.

I am thankful for my immediate and extended family He has blessed me with - a large family who grew up together, laughed together, cried together, has shared many great memories together, and has been there for each other through many ups and downs.

I am thankful for the many godly men God has raised up and afforded the means to reach millions worldwide through the internet. These men have greatly influenced my life, and I am thankful for their submission to the Lord Jesus Christ to be used for the building of His Kingdom.

I am thankful for this blog that God has entrusted me with to declare the eternal truths of His Word.

I am thankful for the online discernment ministries God has raised up to contend for the faith.

I am thankful for the trials and afflictions I go through as God uses them to perform His perfect work in me and they serve to bear witness for Christ.

I am thankful for the providence of God to draw the Puritans to America, where they faced many tribulations, to the point of elimination, except that God had already prepared an English-speaking Indian named Squanto to facilitate these Pilgrims' survival (here's an excellent account of the events leading up to the first Thanksgiving: Historian Peter Marshall on Thanksgiving).

I am thankful for being born in the United States of America, though our freedoms are waning, we are still able to worship freely and share the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for our military who volunteer to defend our freedom with their blood and with their lives.

I am thankful for the many temporal things the Provider has so blessed us. I am thankful for our jobs, our home, our vehicles, a safe neighborhood, our clothes, and hot food.

And last but certainly not least, I am thankful to my many online friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who I have met and come to cherish over the last couple of years. Though we've never met face to face, I look forward to that soon day where we will meet each other before our Sovereign King - oh what a day that will be!

I am thankful for many things. The kindness of the Lord and the good things He has done for someone as unworthy as me is so humbling. I am thankful for God revealing Himself to me in His Word and His creation each day, for giving me a hunger and thirst to know Him more, which produces in me the capacity to love Him more.

May each one of you reading this blog today be reminded of the many things for which you should be thankful. His mercy is infinite for His children, and that indeed is something we should never take for granted. Writing this short piece has made me realize I do not thank Him enough for all of His many blessings, and as the great saint of the Lord, Charles Hadden Spurgeon so rightly said,

If we will only think, we shall begin to thank.

May you have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day.