Thankful for Spiritual Blessings
Tim Moore & Nathan Jones
What do you consider to be your greatest blessing?
Is it your health? Your job? Your family?
What about spiritual blessings? Are you counting them as well?
As believers, every day should be a day of thanksgiving. And yet, too often we are ungrateful. We tend to fret over the things that we don’t have.
And yet, Scripture teaches us in that great Psalm of Thanksgiving—Psalm 100 to, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with jubilation; come before Him with rejoicing.” That’s the attitude we are told we should live with, even during the tough times.
As Thanksgiving approaches, let’s pause to consider two of the greatest spiritual blessings we should be thankful for as Christians. These two spiritual blessings should fill our hearts with gratitude each and every day! And, they both relate directly to Bible prophecy and God’s plan for the future!
1. Salvation By Grace Through Faith
The first spiritual blessing that we should be most grateful for is the one that sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world—salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
What makes grace through faith so special?
Every other religion in the world teaches the satanic concept of salvation through good works. “Do!” Christianity alone teaches that we cannot be saved by good works. Our only hope is the righteousness of Jesus applied to us when we put our faith in Him. “Done!”
The biblical foundation for grace can be found in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Likewise, Romans 3:23-24 reveals, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Therefore, we should be thankful that the forgiveness of our sins cannot be earned. It’s a free gift of God! Jesus completed all the work necessary for salvation by sacrificing His perfect life for our sins and then beating death by resurrecting Himself from the dead. We can then have confidence that our eternal destination is Heaven because our going there depends solely on Christ’s finished work, and never on our performance.
Salvation being by grace through faith has a prophetic connection. This salvation was prophesied throughout the Old Testament. For example, in Isaiah 53:5-6 we learn, “But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed… But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him.” The cross was to be the centerpiece of God’s prophetic plan from the very beginning.
The gift of grace through faith should fill us with overwhelming gratitude every single day. But there’s another spiritual blessing that should also cause us to rejoice—one that’s yet to come but is just as certain as our salvation.
2. The Rapture of the Church
The second spiritual blessing has yet to take place. It’s based on God’s promise found in John 14, 1 Corinthians 15, and 1 Thessalonians 4. It’s called the Rapture of the Church.
What is the Rapture? It’s that glorious day when Jesus will appear in the clouds and call His Church out of this world and up to Heaven. As 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 reveals, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
The return of Jesus Christ can be considered a two-stage event. The first stage of Christ’s return is the Rapture. Jesus suddenly appears in the clouds. Believers in Christ are caught up (raptured) to meet Him in the air. And this will all happen in “the twinkling of an eye.” The Rapture is considered an imminent event, in that it could happen at any moment, with no signs that need to precede it.
The second stage is called the Second Coming. Seven-plus years after the Rapture, Jesus will return to the earth at the very end of the Tribulation with His saints. Jesus will first touch down on the Mount of Olives. He will merely have to speak, and the armies of Satan will melt before Him. Once Christ’s enemies are vanquished or interred, King Jesus will establish His Millennial Kingdom on this earth.
We can know that the Rapture will happen before the Tribulation because the Church is promised deliverance from God’s wrath. As 1 Thessalonians 5:9 confirms, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We can see, when reading the book of Revelation, that the Church is absent from chapters 4-18, which cover the Tribulation period. Only then, in Revelation 19, are believers shown to return with Christ, and to rule and reign with Him over His Kingdom.
Because our Savior and Lord will be victorious, and so too as His children, we will also be victorious through Him, then the Rapture should provide us with a great source of thanksgiving as we await our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). Paul concludes his explanation in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 with an exhortation to “comfort one another with these words.” Who isn’t thankful for hope and comfort?
Hearts Filled with Gratitude
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, our hearts can be filled with gratitude for having these two incredible spiritual blessings: first, the gift of salvation Jesus provided through His sacrifice on the cross, which is a gift we could never earn but receive by grace through faith; and second, the blessed hope of the Rapture, when Jesus will suddenly appear to rapture His Church home.
These two blessings should transform how we view our current circumstances. When we see the signs of the times, such as wars, natural disasters, moral decline, the regathering of Israel, and many more, all converging around us, we should not despair. “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). These very signs point to the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Remember what the remaining verses of Psalm 100 remind us to do: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His faithfulness is to all generations.”
Whether this Thanksgiving finds you surrounded by the embrace of family or facing seemingly insurmountable challenges all on your own, remember that if you belong to Jesus, you have every reason for thanksgiving. Your salvation is secure, having been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Your future is bright, having been guaranteed by God’s faithfulness. And, your hope is imminent, in that Jesus could call His children home at any moment. These are the eternal realities that should fill your heart with gratitude, not just on one holiday, but every single day.
So, as you gather around your Thanksgiving table this year, don’t just count your earthly blessings, though they may be many. Instead, count your spiritual blessings as well. Thank God for His amazing grace that has saved you today, and also thank Him for the blessed hope that awaits you soon in the tomorrows. In a world growing darker by the day, God’s children have the brightest future imaginable!
So, until Christ comes, keep looking up and giving thanks, for our God is faithful, and our redemption draws ever near. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from all of us at Lamb & Lion Ministries!
