qualified!

Perhaps one of these situations has applied to you:

You tried hard to make the team or get the position, but you fell short.

You were told that your credentials weren't sufficient to match the situation.

You were told that your credentials were more than the job required.

"I didn't qualify."

"I'm sorry, you're not qualified."

"You're over-qualified."

Generally speaking, the verb "qualify" doesn't have a direct object indicating the person or thing acted upon.  It's what's called an "intransitive" verb.  "Qualify" is usually seen as a word like "yawn" since you can't "yawn" something.  It's the person him or herself who qualifies.

However, in terms of qualifying in faith, our God breaks the grammatical rules.  In his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives "joyful thanks to the Father, Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy People in the Kingdom of Light" (Colossians 1:12).  This stunning phrase states that we can't ever be qualified for that Kingdom on our own (and it's certainly not because we're over-qualified!) but that God in His Mercy has qualified us, this through the Qualifying Merit of His Son Jesus which is credited to us.  He has not only taken the disqualifying penalty of our sins upon Himself, He has also qualified us in Himself so that we can be in His Kingdom, starting now, and continuing forever.

So this Thanksgiving season, as we pray, let's give joyful thanks that we have been qualified by The Father, and invite others to allow Him to do the same for them.