Count Your Blessings


Life comes at us fast. Sometimes, good things 
happen, and other times, we face an onslaught of 
difficulty after difficulty. When the waves of 
strife drive our faces into the dirt, we must not 
give up, lose heart, or stop trusting God. But 
lest "trusting God" becomes a mere cliché for us, 
God has ordained things for us to do to keep our 
minds fixed upon Him. It is a willful act that we 
must do to think on Him, and remember Who He is 
and what He has done. As Paul says in Colossians 
3:2, "Set your mind on the things above, not on 
the things that are on earth." We are vulnerable 
to getting overwhelmed by the nonsense of this 
world, and it is imperative that we remember some 
things, particularly, that which is true about 
the many blessings which we have in Christ.

Surely, we can think of instances of answered 
prayer, of God's provision, of God's graces, of 
God's good and perfect gifts to us, and of the 
mercy of God. We have the memories of past acts 
of God on our behalf, and we have the promise of 
our future inheritance in Christ to look forward 
to. In the meantime, we have the Word of God to 
remind us of the good heart of God. We should 
benefit from all three. Many times in Israel's 
history, after a wonderful work of God, the 
Israelites would dedicate a song or build an 
altar in memory of what God had done. They were 
to tell their children of the mighty acts of God, 
lest future generations forget His  faithfulness. 
We, too, need to look back and remember what God 
has done for us. There is hope in remembering 
where we were and  seeing how God, in all wisdom, 
delivered us from ourselves or from enemies. God 
is so gracious, and we cannot take His grace 
for  granted. Rather, we should thank Him for His 
provision, trust Him in the present, and think on 
the great blessings coming to us in  the coming kingdom.


Not too long ago, I went through some very 
serious experimental eye surgeries because of 
double vision that was causing havoc in my body. 
God did not heal the double vision. While some of 
the secondary symptoms went away, many new ones 
came up. As I  spent months just lying in bed in 
pain, not seeing well, and experiencing near 
constant nausea and vertigo, it was easy to 
be  discouraged at times, to say the least (many 
of these symptoms are still present). When my 
wife came home from work each day, she had me 
list out five to ten blessings of the day. They 
were very simple things, from being able to eat 
to being able to have a nap and get some rest. Of 
course, she was number one on the list, until she 
decided she would put me to the test by not 
letting me count any of the blessings I had 
listed previously. It got harder and harder to 
think of other graces of God, but they were 
there. I just  had to think harder and look 
deeper, even if it took awhile, which it 
sometimes did. I was alive, I had a roof over my 
head, I had a wife  who loved me, even though 
this happened months into our marriage, I had 
food to eat, and I had clothes on my back. Paul 
said in 1  Timothy 6:8, "If we have food and 
covering, with these we shall be content." 
Elsewhere, we read that he learned to be content 
in any  circumstance (Philippians 4:11), and it 
was the constant presence of Christ which made 
his contentment possible (Hebrews 13:5). When I 
read these statements from Paul in the past, I 
kind of thought he must have been a 
super-Christian, the likes of which we 
normal-Christians could never be. Yet, given the 
suffering he went through, he had many chances to 
learn the contentment which he came to possess. 
As we go through suffering, the Lord points us 
toward the things we typically miss when things 
are easy and  good. Yet thankfulness is a choice, 
and it is one that we need to make, counting our 
blessings, even if they seem small, unfair, 
or  ridiculous. Paul didn't overlook the basics. 
In fact, he was happy to praise God if only he 
had the basics. We need his attitude of 
thankfulness for all things, and in even the most 
dire and unfair of circumstances as Paul regularly faced.

We cannot let the daily blessings with which God 
showers us pass us by without giving Him credit. 
One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to 
refuse to give God thanks after experiencing His 
goodness and seeing His power manifested on our 
behalf (Romans 1:21). God has been faithful, and 
He always will be. Even when we lack faith, still 
He is faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). Great is  His 
faithfulness, and His mercies are new every 
morning (Lamentations 3:23). Every day, new 
mercies come our way. Every day God's thoughts 
toward us are so numerous that they cannot even 
be counted (Psalm 139:17-18). So already we have 
more things to be thankful for than we can even 
name or count. We have "every spiritual blessing 
in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 
1:3). Eternity in paradise is ours. When all else 
fails, God never fails, and His mercy, love, and 
kindness endure forever (Psalm 52:1).

There is so much to be thankful for, and so many 
blessings to count. In fact, if only we could see 
all that God does, we would have  more mercies 
than we could ever account for. Let us not let 
the missiles of the devil knock us down, such 
that we forget that we have Christ and the many 
blessings of God. We should never lose hope, and 
we should always have reason to be thankful. So 
what  are you waiting for? Start counting!