“Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God, the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25 NLT)
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7 NLT)
“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear and awe.” (Hebrews 1228 NLT)
Thankful: pleased and relieved. expressing gratitude and relief. Conscious of benefit received, or what we are about to receive. (Oxford)
It turns out we can be thankful in arrears or thankful in advance. As born again believers, we are both. We have already received salvation from sin and are still awaiting Kingdom inheritance. We live in the ‘already not yet’ and it is great space for gratitude.
On Saturday I was interviewed for a college paper. The student plied me with questions about the continuity of my faith: has it been sustained through major changes or minor ones? Her queries brought clarity to my story: the kind we only gain when we glance back with God’s help. I can now see two parallel rails running through the whole of my existence: the Word and the Spirit laid straight and strong as a backbone from the very beginning.
My childhood was framed out by the faith of my parents. My twenties were spent learning God’s word for myself. My thirties brought practical life application, steady surrender to the instruction of God’s word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. I’m forty-one now and I wonder what’s next.
God has been there from the beginning; speaking and supervising from the quiet mystery of my mother’s womb all the way through today. He’s walked with me from childhood to adulthood to whatever it is when we start sending our own offspring out into the world. He is faithful and I am completely grateful. Thankful in arrears and thankful in advance and quite convinced that the best is yet to come.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT)
Lord, thank You for moments of clarity when we get to look back and see divine fingerprints all over our story. You are so faithful, our Salvation and our Hope. May we live thankful for everything that has happened, and grateful for all that is still to unfold. Amen.