While we have much for which to be thankful year-round, the Thanksgiving season provides us with a unique opportunity to step back and reflect upon God’s gracious gifts. In my own life I am grateful for the family God has given me, the church in which God has placed me, and the strength with which He has supplied me in order that I may work and provide for my family. I am also thankful, as are many Houstonians, that the Houston Astros won the World Series, which truly is a blessing after the devastation our area suffered from Hurricane Harvey less than three months ago. And I am even thankful that my Houston Rockets are playing great basketball right now. But, most of all, I am especially thankful for God’s patience with me.

All the blessings I have received are gifts from God. I am not worthy of any of His gifts but am ever so grateful that He is the gracious giver of gifts to undeserving people like me. God does not owe me anything, yet He has blessed me with life. I am not simply referring to the air I breathe, for the life God has given me is so much more than that – it is an abundant life. And, sadly, it is a life I so often reject because of my fleshly desires and the sin which I allow to creep in, or, better yet, the sin for which I often open the door and willingly invite in to stay for a while.

While it seems that it would be so easy to live the life for which I was created, too often I fail to truly give honor and thanks to God, my Creator. Rather than living a life of thankfulness, I live as if I am the source of my blessings. Not only that, but I even go so far as to live as if I deserve more, and I often find myself complaining about what I don’t have, which leads me to covet my neighbor’s blessings. If I am completely honest, I have to admit that I want more, that I live as if the world revolves around me, and that I act as if God should stoop down to serve me. But the great irony here is this: God actually did stoop down to serve mankind, but His service was contrary to what any of us deserves. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). God has given me life in Jesus Christ; not the vile life I deserve, but the abundant life that comes from knowing and enjoying God.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful to God for His patience towards me, for apart from His patience I would continue on the wide road of self-love and ingratitude and would only get what I truly deserve, but, because of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, I have gained innumerable blessings that God has in store for all who believe and trust in Him.

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift! ~2 Corinthians 9:15

~Corey