THANKFUL FOR SPIRITUAL QUALITIES

Colossians 1:3-6

Not a single day goes by that has nothing for which we need to be thankful to God. However, our gratitude tends to focus mainly on our day-to-day needs, as opposed to the spiritual qualities that God wants us to continue to grow in.

Paul and Timothy had many reasons to be thankful for the disciples in Colosse. They had heard about their FAITH in Christ Jesus, LOVE for all the saints, and HOPE stored up in heaven that they had heard from the word of truth. Our faith in God, love for others and hope of making it to heaven can encourage others around us if we continue to grow in these qualities.

1 Corinthians 13:13 The only things that we have both now and forever are FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.


1. FAITH

Romans 5:1-5

Our faith is the key to the grace in which we stand. Without our faith, we cannot access the peace that comes from knowing Christ. But this faith will be tested through the different challenges that we face, e.g. loss of a job or a loved one, financial difficulties, marital problems, parenting issues, sickness, struggles with sin in our hearts and character. If we stand firm, then we learn perseverance, which leads to character that gives us hope. This hope will not disappoint us because god has given us his love through the Holy Spirit.

Q. How faithful are you? Would your faith be reason for anyone to give thanks?

Hebrews 12:1-3

We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (chapter 11:1ff) who have made it ahead of us through their faith, and we are thankful to God today because of their faith. At the beginning of the year we had faithful goals of the things that we wanted to do for God and what we wanted God to do through us. No matter what has happened, we must continue to fix our eyes on Jesus. He is the only one who can perfect our faith.


2. HOPE

Hebrews 6:16-20

God has made certain his promise. If we remain faithful to him, we have hope of spending eternity with him. This hope is an anchor for our souls, firm and secure. No storm can sweep our souls away from God's kingdom if we hold on to the hope that we have. God never says that the storm will not come, but he confirms that our hope is a firm and secure anchor.

Q. When was the last time that you thought of heaven and longed for it? How much does this hope make you stay close to God?

Matthew 27:5

When we lose our hope, we die, no matter how bad we may feel about our sin. Judas recognized the fact that he had sinned against god. He even returned the bribe money that he had been given, but he lost hope of ever being forgiven.

Today, let us cast our eyes beyond our sins to what awaits us in heaven if we confess and repent of those sins. Don't lose hope. Awesome things await us in heaven (1 Peter 1:3-5).


3. LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:8a

Our friends may fail us, our bosses may fail us, our politicians, teachers, parents, family members or even our own health may fail us, but love never fails. There is never a situation where love is not required. Even when people have done wrong against us, God still requires us to love them and pray for them.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

Our love for one another can increase and overflow. We can all grow to be more loving than we already are.

Hebrews 13:1 We must keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.

James 2:8 This is the royal law - to love one another as we love ourselves.

1 Peter 1:22

Q. Do we love one another deeply from the heart or do we just tolerate each other?

Deep love is only possible after we have purified ourselves by obeying the truth. Let us not fail to grow because we have failed to love. Let others give thanks to God because of our sincere love for one another.

Ephesians 4:2-6 let us be completely humble, gentle and patient with each other. Let us keep the unity of the Spirit.

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