Count Your Blessings

Count Your Blessings

There is a popular song, the chorus of which goes thus:

"Count your blessings, 
name them one by one,
Count your many blessings,
See what God has done,
Count your blessings, 
Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

When I hear the song, it is indeed a reminder of my duty to my creator, to praise and worship Him for all the endowments He lavishes upon me on a daily basis.

A lot of us get bogged down with life's  pressures, constant bad news we hear in the media, and other situational pressures that tend to drown out the need for us as God's creation to appreciate Him for His blessings and goodness upon our lives.

If at any point in your life you find it difficult to think of any blessing God has bestowed upon you, you can at least remember the truth ofJohn 3:16, for God did indeed so "love" the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The breath of life we enjoy now is a blessing we tend to take for granted, not remembering thatwe are simply alive today, not because of anything we could ever think, say or do, but just because of the mercies of God, that we may still have time to fulfil His divine purposes for our lives.

There are people in hospitals who are paying money they don't have for oxygen or a lung machine to help keep them alive.

We need to realise that many people would do anything to have the kind of privileges we take for granted, without complaining.

Other privileges we take for granted are the clothes on our back, the food we eat at least 3 times a day, a roof over our heads, the gift of family and friends, and a job that even though it may not be what we desire for ourselves right now is at least better than nothing.

We all need to get beyond focusing on what we desire and that God has not done for us that sometimes makes us ungrateful and forgetful about the myriads of blessings and endowments that we do have and usually never really bother to ask for.

We are reminded in Proverbs 18:20, 
that it is the fruit of our mouths, that is the harvest of our utterances or lack of it in praising God, in asking for our daily bread, that we are satisfied with His favour, and our stomachs are ultimately filled or not.

Let's not fail to appreciate, talk less ask God for our daily requirements any more, for if we do we inadvertently restrict His flow of provisions for our lives.

God is Almighty and is only limited by our inaction, for He will not break covenant because we fail to fulfil our own end of the bargain.

I recently began to write down the blessings of God upon my life on a daily basis, so that I may recount them easily to others as a testimony of His faithfulness and remember to honour Him more robustly, as I ought - for He made it all possible.

I was prompted to do so because, as in Luke 6:38, I know that when we give God the honour due Him He will in turn ensure that His store of blessings abound with a good measure, that is pressed down, shaken together and running over, that we in turn may continue the cycle by blessing others abundantly, so that with the measure we use, will be measured back to us, and even more.

Shalom.