We come to You, this
morning, Father, to say, ‘Thank You’. Doing that only makes sense since there
is so much to be grateful for.
You are the God who
has rescued us. You delivered us from Satan’s domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of Your beloved Son. Because of how He lived and
died and was raised again, our sins are forgiven. So, instead of being
confronted by a justly angry God, we enjoy knowing a God who has fully accepted
us. We get to enjoy You.
If that were the
extent of it, we would have more than enough to be grateful for. To be forgiven
all our sins. How amazing! But that's not the extent of it. Your love for us
goes further than that, much further.
You have also
decided to adopt us into Your family. We could make no claim to that. What
could we say to prove that we deserve such a privilege? And yet, that is what
You have done. You are not just our God, You are our Father. What comfort.
But even that isn’t
the end of it. Having rescued us from the evil one, forgiven our sins, and then
included us in Your family, now, by Your Spirit, You are slowly but surely
changing us. You are making us into glorious people, pure and beautiful and whole.
And while the Spirit has not yet finished His work in us, we know that He will.
You have blessed us with a sure hope.
All of this calls
for more than gratitude, Father. We want to respond by living in
a way that pleases You. We pursue this not out of a sense of duty. How cold that would be. No, we
do this because we love You.
But here we need
Your help. The power of sin is broken, but its presence remains. Satan is a
defeated foe, but he is not yet vanquished. So, there are obstacles to our
expressing our love to You in our actions. We ask that You would help us by
Your Spirit so that we could do a better job of this. Help us to see what needs
work in our lives. And then, grant to us the grace to be changed in those
areas.
We look forward to
the day, Father, when we will be able to see you face to face, and to enjoy
walking with You in the cool of the day. That will be so good. Until then, help
us to fight the evil one so that we can live as Your faithful children. We pray
this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
