Thanks and Blessings

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things acording to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance unti we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:3-14

The passage above may be long, but it contains so many truths. We are SO blessed! David and I were talking about this last night and I felt so convicted. I can be so blind to all the blessings in my life- God is SO good.

God has truly bestowed on us every spiritual blessing! He predestined us to follow him before there was time! We've been saved through him, through faith in his son! We have been placed in loving Christian homes with amazing parents who teach us in wisdom and follow the Lord. We have amazing Christian friends who lead us back to the cross and challenge our faith. I'm so thankful for my parents, who love me no matter how stupid and foolish I am and continue to pray for me and help me grow. I also am thankful for all of the strong Christian friends I've made that challenge my faith and help me to mature and love God more. And we have an amazing church, with incredible pastors, a fantastic youth ministry. And we've been installed with a true passion for God.

We are truly surrounded by so many blessings. And I know I can be so blind to what I have. There are so many people who don't have the christian envoirment we have. David was saying last night that without all this, we'd most likely be indulged in a life of sin in love with the world. There are so many teens and children living in non christian homes with no real influence of God at all in their lives and the majority of them are pretty much encouraged to live immoral lives because of this loss. They've been lost to sin, living foolish lives based on what they want and feel. And it's so sad to think there are so many people living like that, that don't have what we have. Isn't that such a smack of reality?

We should be so unbelievable grateful for what God has blessed us with! He's so good!

My friend Amy challenged us once to write a list of all the blessings in your life. I'd encourage you to take on that challenge.

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"

In His Grace,

Kylie

(ps. Just to clarify, I want to make sure that you all know that all sin is counted equal in God's eyes and I am not saying that we are in any way less sinful or better than anyone else.)