"Step One"

"I will extol Thee, O LORD; for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me." (Psalms 30:1) The first step in becoming thankful is to realize the position that we have been given in Christ Jesus our Lord, who having raised up from the grave and ascended up into heaven, will also raise us up also, that we should be with Him in heaven for ever. Yes, that's a future event we look forward to, but it is also a current life in which we live, because that eternal life began the moment we first believed; in that moment, all the burdens of sin and death were removed, and we became a new creature that was raised up above mortality and taking the sting of death out of the picture, for good! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:1, "We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." The "then" is much the same as a "therefore", where we need to take a look back and see what it is there for; which is back to the following chapter in verse 17, which says, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: and old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Which also begins with a "therefore", and must be considered the result of something previously spoken, which actually begins to be spoken of in verse 5:1-3, that says, "For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." And, the "for we know that" is the result of our faith, which is spoken of in the previous verse, 4:18, which says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Based upon all these things, which are conditioned upon our faith and what we believe, we are thankful to our God for having changed us, and for having made us a new creation in Christ. Now then; if we are truly thankful for what God has done, then our thankfulness will be apparent in our lives, because the gift of eternal life that we have been given means more to us than all that is in this world, seeing how this world and all that is in it shall pass away..."For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (2 Corinthians 4:16 & 17)