Tis the Season of Thanksgiving

By Elizabeth Prata

Next week is Thanksgiving, a time when we traditionally celebrate the blessings we enjoy in life. Many families have a tradition of sitting around their table and each guest or family member saying what they are thankful for.

I’m thankful for my salvation. For that to be possible I am thankful for the Holy Spirit drawing me to Jesus. For that to be possible I am thankful to Jesus for obeying the Father and dying on the cross. For that to be possible I am thankful for God who created all the world and who is so Holy that His Son obeyed Him and took all the wrath that was destined for me on that cross. I am thankful He revealed Himself to us in His word, and that we have the privilege of prayer, the Bible, the gifts, the fruits, and eternal life. I am thankful for the promises of prospering us in the regenerative process of growing in Christlikeness, for treasures and rewards in heaven, for the promise of rest and peace.

When we attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, sitting at the banquet table, we will be rejoicing. Now, the time after the rapture when we are presented as a bride, and the time of the Tribulation back on earth when we are having our purification and our rewards at the Bema Seat, and the time of the Millennial Kingdom, and the final huge celebration at the New Heavens and the New earth after the old one is melted in a fervent heat…I don’t know if there will be actual food and actual table. I think there will be but I don’t know. So we are sure anyway of this as a celebratory rejoicing in heaven in our real, glorified bodies.

What gratitude we will feel, for He created every good thing. Gratitude is a good thing and we will be experiencing it perfectly and fully!

As for now here on earth during the season of Thanksgiving, recount the blessings you have. Even if you are going through a stormy patch, or a difficult grief, or are poor beyond imagining, there is always something to be thankful for, starting and ending with salvation.