As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, many people are thinking about what they are thankful for. With all the stresses that come with holidays, with planning, preparation, and food, sometimes we need to slow down and think. We need to think of all the blessings that we have and who supplies them all. Usually when we think of what we are thankful for, it is in a sense of material blessings. TV’s, cars, and money can all be things we are thankful for. But what about the spiritual blessings? Do we ever think of how many spiritual blessings we have? There are many of them, but we are only going to discuss a few of them at this time.

One thing we must first look at is evidence that we do have spiritual blessings. Ephesians 1:3 says this, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” So we see that in Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. This is an important concept to understand, that we have all spiritual blessings. On this earth, there are and will be many things that we will never receive. Not everyone will receive the same physical, earthly blessings as others. But if we stay faithful to God, and are saved, we will receive all the spiritual blessings we can possibly receive. Not just some of them like on earth, but every spiritual blessing. This is an amazing gift from God that everyone needs to realize.

There are so many spiritual blessings that we have we could not possibly describe them all in an article, but we are going to look at just a few.

One spiritual blessing we have is God’s love. God’s love is eternal (Psalm 136), and he has shown us time and time again that he does love us. He gave his one and only son (John 3:16) because he loved us. But we were still sinners when he sent his son. As Romans 5:8 says, “ But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We were separated from God, deep in sin and he still loved us that much. What a beautiful relationship we have with God. Not only is God’s love a blessing, but also Christ’s death is a blessing. If Christ had not died, there would be no hope for us of eternal life. Romans 6:23 exclaims, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Since Christ died for our sins, we are no longer dead in sin, but we live in hope.

Even though we are in the flesh, and our heavenly Father is in spirit form, we have a way to communicate with him. That communication comes through the avenue of prayer. Prayer can be a powerful thing if we do it sincerely. It is just amazing how we have a way to communicate with someone who is not in the flesh, but of the spirit. Jesus tells us in John 15:7 that we can ask God for anything and it will be done for us, as long as it is according to His will. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to “Pray without ceasing”. Why is this? There are many reasons, one of them being that if we don’t pray, our communication with God has ceased. When two people are separated, and they don’t talk to each other, that relationship they once had begins to disintegrate slowly. We need to constantly pray to keep our relationship with God.

We also have the Holy Spirit to help us in our prayers. Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Sometimes when we pray, words cannot express the emotion we have inside us. But God does, and he knows what we are feeling. Sometimes we don’t need words, he knows what’s in our hearts. The Holy Spirit also gives us other attributes. In Isaiah 11:2 states, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” He will give us rest, wisdom, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. What a beautiful thing it is, to have the Holy Spirit as our helper.

Ephesians 1:5 says, “He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…” This is another the spiritual blessing. The fact that we can be called children of God is a blessing in and of itself. John 1:12 says that we can be sons of God if we believe in the name of Christ Jesus. If we are children of God, we have access to all of the spiritual blessings that exist. When we are His children, we have access to prayer, to the Holy Spirit, to Christ’s forgiveness, and to eternal life.

Now this is not an exhaustive list of all spiritual blessings. These are just a few. When you think about what you are thankful for, don’t limit yourself to just the physical world, think about the spiritual blessings as well. Spiritual blessings last longer than the physical. Most importantly, though, thank your heavenly Father, who supplies both your physical and spiritual blessings.