What are you thankful for?

I had my pastor here in Korea call me this week and ask me to speak for a couple of minutes and tell what I am thankful for this year. As I reflect over my life to think about what things I am thankful for, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. I realize I am not as thankful as I should be for the things God has given me. I have parents who raised me in a loving manner and taught me many things about God. I have a wife who takes care of my children and keeps my house. I have 5 children who want to be like me, please me, and be loved by me. I have a good job that pays me for work I enjoy. This is something to be truly thankful for when you worked for 6 months without being paid. I am thankful that God supplied all of our needs for those 6 months with no paycheck. I am thankful that God put in my heart over 15 years ago to be a missionary and that he has fulfilled it this year. I have a church in America that loves and supports our work here in Korea. I have a church in Korea that has a heart to reach their unreached kinsmen in the North. I have opportunities to show God’s love to refugees from the North by teaching English each week. I have people all over the world who care for, love, and pray for us here in Korea. I have my health. My family has their health. More important than all of these is that I have a Savior that loves me and has redeemed me out of the pit. I was the wretch the song talks about. I was a liar, thief, murderer and adulterer at heart. I was the fulfillment of the verse that says that our heart is desperately wicked above all things. I had nothing worth redeeming in myself, but God chose to save me from myself and from his wrath at my sin. Even when I hated Him, He sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. In the middle of my sin, He drew me to himself and I repented of my sins. He made me a new creation, with new thoughts and desires. He gave me the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the things he has promised in his word to give to those who follow him. What more could I thank him for? He saved me when I deserved to die and spend eternity in Hell.