The weather patterns in Seattle – frosty mornings, rainy days, colorful leaves, getting-dark-early - remind us that autumn is here and so is the month of November. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving before the month is over. There is much to give thanks for and we don’t have to wait till Thanksgiving Day to do that. This month we are thanking the Lord for the redemptive work of salvation He secured for us.

It is against human nature to be thankful. In fact, we are better at complaining than appreciating. We’re good at telling the Lord what we want him to do for us than thanking Him for all He has done for us. In order to wash out that complaining spirit and replace it with a heart of gratitude to the Lord, David wrote in Psalms 103 a prayer in which he talked to his own soul and reminded himself to “bless the Lord” and “forget not all his benefits.” Three benefits we are to remember according to this Psalms.

Pardon
“Who forgives all your iniquity.” David begun by reminding us that God forgives all our iniquity. He started here because this is the foundation for everything else. Our greatest problem is the guilt we feel because of our sin, and our greatest need is to know forgiveness from the Lord. Note that David said that God forgives “all” our iniquity. That’s good news, isn’t it? Some of us have really blown it big time, and we have messed up over and over and over again. And we’ve done the same dumb things repeatedly even after promising never to do them again. The word “all” is included because it means that God intends to forgive our future sins.

Most of us secretly imagine that when we come to Christ, all our past sins are forgiven, but then it’s a footrace race with the devil until the end of life. But when Christ died, all our sins were in the future. And when we come to Christ, all our sins are forgiven, even the yet-to-be-committed sins, ones that would shock us if we knew about them right now. What a God we serve! What grace! He forgives all our sins—past, present and future. That’s a huge insight because it touches how we see God. He’s more willing to forgive than we are to be forgiven. He is eager to forgive. He is ready to forgive. He wants to forgive you and me.


Healing
“Who heals all your diseases.” After doctors and nurses have done all they can do, and after we have used all the latest technology and taken the newest drugs, healing must come from the Lord. That’s why we pray for the sick. They may be healed by medicine or by surgery or by some other course of treatment or they may find healing through prayer or by a miracle from the Lord. All of those things are possible, and they are not mutually exclusive. If you were sick and are now healthy, give thanks to the Lord. If your cancer is in remission, give thanks to the Lord. If you nearly died after an accident but somehow survived, give thanks to the Lord. And remember that any healing in this life is limited and temporary. Our ultimate healing comes when we are raised immortal and incorruptible. In that happy resurrection day, when Jesus comes and the “dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), then at last we will be totally, completely, and finally healed once and for all. Between now and then give thanks to the Lord for every bit of healing you experience.

Deliverance
“Who redeems your life from the pit.” To redeem means to rescue from danger in the time of trouble. The “pit” refers to death itself. We are not to fear death as death is our passage to heaven. The Apostle Paul said that to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor 5:8). We have been delivered from “hell,” a place of judgment and torment for those who died without Christ.

God has preserved us to this very moment and has protected us every step of our journey. If God willed it to be so, we would die today—and we might die today—but it cannot happen without God’s permission. Satan himself cannot touch us with God’s permission. We ought to live life with no care for how or when we are going to die. Every day the Lord rescues us in a million ways that we don’t see. His angels encamp around us to deliver us from trouble. Think of the things that could have happened to you but didn’t. No one robbed you. No one shot you. You weren’t fired. A truck didn’t hit you. You weren’t rear-ended. No one scammed you on the Internet (though some people tried). Your identity wasn’t stolen (as far as you know. You don’t have cancer—or if you do, you’re not dead yet. You’ve got your health (what there is of it), your friends (most of them, anyway), your money (maybe not as much as a three months ago but you’re not broke), your job (if you don’t get let go tomorrow), and on and on it goes. Think of all the bad things that could have happened to you today that didn’t. So let’s be thankful


Blessings,
Pastor Chris Chan

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