"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." - Psalm 100:4-5
2017 is ending, and 2018 is about to begin. It's a time for all of us to celebrate God's goodness and a time for us to be thankful for the many good things that He has done and will be doing for all of us.
That said, it will always be good to thank God. The passage above tells us that we should "enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise." The New Year symbolizes for us a gate that leads into something new. We should enter the new year with gratefulness to God.
Perhaps we've all thanked God for the blessings we've received. Perhaps we've all thanked God for the forgiveness He has given to us for all the times we've failed. Perhaps we've thanked God for all of the prayers we've prayed that He answered.
Still, there are a lot more things to thank Him for. Here are some things we should all thank God for as 2018 begins:
1) His plans to give us hope and a future
We may not know what tomorrow holds for us - or in this case, the whole of 2018 - but we do know that God's plans for us in it are good, pleasing and perfect (see Romans 12:2). How do we know this? It's because He promised it Himself:
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)
2) For making all things work for the good, if we love Him
We may encounter all sorts of unpleasant, even bad experiences all-year-round, but if we love God, we are assured that everything will work out for our own good. Romans 8:28-29 tells us:
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
3) For making us His children through faith in His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ
Lastly, we might not make a big thing out of it, but we really should: God made us His children through our faith in Christ Jesus, His one and only begotten Son.
So many people belittle the identity that being "God's child" brings. This is a very high honor for a very undeserving people; an undeserved recognition for simply believing and putting our faith in Christ, particularly in His finished work!
Not everyone on earth has received Him, but those who did are so blessed to have this wonderful and priceless gift: to be a child of God. John 1:10-13 tells us,
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
