As Thanksgiving draws near, there really is so much Christians can be thankful for. The first and foremost reason we have to be thankful is because of His salvation.

Before the creation of the world, God knew what He would need to do for His creatures. He knew we would rebel against His law. He owed us nothing, but in love for us, He devised a plan to redeem “whosoever will.”

God’s plan involved one solution. Because He tells us that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and all of us are sinners (Romans 3:23), a righteous forgiveness would necessarily involve death. The problem was that the person who would die would have to be sinless, or He could only die for his own sins.

John 3:16 reveals God’s answer to the problem of sin: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Because Jesus was God, He was without sin and could not yield to it – even when tempted.

God then chose to make salvation as easy as possible – simply by believing what Christ did for them. Anyone (“whosoever”) who was sorry for their sins and would believe that Jesus died for them, would be saved. It could not be any easier than that, but it would have to be their choice.

The final part of salvation is that it is all up to God to accomplish it. There is no middle ground and no exceptions. God said if you believe then you would have eternal life. He does all the keeping us saved.

If you are saved, have you thanked God today for it?

Most Christians are very familiar with this passage in Romans. In five verses, Paul emphasizes that there is nothing that can separate us from Christ’s love.

If there were anyone that should know, he had certainly put each of these troubles to the test. They included “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” In each case, he could boldly say that none of them was able to separate him from Christ’s love when he was going through those troubles.

The result is that he, and every Christian since, can be sure that Christ can enable us to be “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” We must notice that it is not our ability to endure trials, but it is His ability working in and through us that gives us that enablement.

As if the above list of possible trials were not enough, Paul expands it in verses 38 and 39. He adds: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jude encourages believers to “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1:21). It is His love for you that will enable you to keep going. It has no comparison. Your love for Him will be strengthened when you focus on His love for you: “We love him, because he first loved us” (I Jn. 4:19).

By drawing near to God and staying as close as you can with careful obedience, you will come to know His love daily and in a greater way. His love can keep you going, help you be holy, and enable you to serve Him better.