10 Days of Thankfulness: God the Spirit, my Hope (#3)

When we think of God the Holy Spirit, where does your mind go?  Do you think about forces or ghosts with white sheets or unseen spirits?  It's hard to wrap our thinking around the third person of the Godhead.  Yet, this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the indwelling Holy Spirit.

 *not to be too technical, but this theology is important!*

About twelve years ago, I placed my trust in Jesus Christ.  This salvation through Him was by faith only, and not through anything that I had done.  Believe me!  I tried to be a "good" girl all the time, because I hated the thought of someone not liking me or being displeased with what I did.

At the moment of salvation, though, something changed.  I changed.  I wasn't the same little girl who was trying really hard to be "good".  I was made new.  For those, like me, who have placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation; at that moment they became "new creations in Christ".  As a new child of God, there are so many things that are now true of me because of who I am in Christ.

Redeemed.  Accepted.  Beloved.  

Loved.  

Righteous.  Holy.  

Worthy.  Pure.  Child of God.  Heirs with Christ.  

Blameless.  

Blessed.  Chosen.  Saved.  Forgiven. 

 Objects of Grace and Mercy.   

Sealed.  God's Work.  

Here's why I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit:

1. He teaches me about God the Father and God the Son.  The Holy Spirit is our Helper (John 16) who tells us the things of God.  With our finite minds, we cannot even begin to understand the works and ways of God.  Yet, each day as we are submitted to the Spirit, He fills us with more understanding and opens our minds to the truth of God's Word.

2. God has given each believer spiritual gifts that are manifested through the Spirit for the common good of the Body of Christ.  (1 Cor. 12)  I am thankful for the gifts that God has given me with which to minister to my brothers and sisters in Christ.  

3. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin.  I am thankful for the Holy Spirit inside of me doing the work of sanctification in my life.  He is daily changing me into the image of Christ.  In this, He convicts me of the sinful choices that I make, and provides the strength to live in God's forgiveness to not choose that sin again.  Though this is a very painful process, I know that it will yield a beautiful result that will glorify God!  

4.  The Holy Spirit is the promise that I am a child of God.  As it says in Ephesians 1, He is the guarantee of our inheritance in Christ.  I can have hope that this world is not all that there is to life, and one day, I will stand before the throne of God washed with the blood of the Lamb.  

Thank God for His Spirit's work in your life to conform you into the image of His Son.  

This is what it's all about.